Plot
Based on the Tichborne case, the film is set in the late 19th century. The film concerns a claimant to the Tichborne Baronetcy.
Lord Tichborne, the ninth-richest nobleman in England, disappears after a South American shipwreck. Some years later his erudite Afro-English valet, Bogle, is sent to investigate rumors that Tichborne survived and settled in Australia. An alcoholic ruffian answers Bogle's inquiries, claiming to be the lost heir. Bogle suspects fraud, but conspires with the claimant to split the inheritance should the latter successfully pass himself off to friends, family and the courts. As the claimant returns to England to continue his charade, enough people confirm his identity to make both the claimant and Bogle believe that he just might be the rightful heir after all.
The wars of Scottish Independence were a series of military campaigns fought between the Kingdom of Scotland and the Kingdom of England in the late 13th and early 14th centuries.
The House of Stuart, originally spelled Stewart, was a royal house of Scotland, England, Ireland and later Great Britain. The family name comes from the office of High Steward of Scotland, which had been held by the family progenitor Walter fitz Alan. The name Stewart and variations had become established as a family name by the time of his grandson Walter Stewart. The first monarch of the Stewart line was Robert II, whose male-line descendants were kings and queens in Scotland from 1371, and of England, Ireland and Great Britain from 1603, until 1714. Mary, Queen of Scots (r.1542-1567), was brought up in France where she adopted the French spelling of the name Stuart.
The Tichborne case was a legal cause célèbre that captivated Victorian England in the 1860s and 1870s. It concerned the claims by a man sometimes referred to as Thomas Castro or as Arthur Orton, but usually termed "the Claimant", to be the missing heir to the Tichborne baronetcy. He failed to convince the courts, was convicted of perjury and served a long prison sentence.
When the crown of Scotland became vacant in September 1290 on the death of the seven-year-old Queen Margaret, 13 claimants to the throne came forward. Those with the most credible claims were John Balliol; Robert de Brus, 5th Lord of Annandale; John Hastings and Floris V, Count of Holland.
Tichborne is a village and civil parish 4 miles (6.4 km) east of Winchester in Hampshire, England.
Arthur Orton was an English man who has generally been identified by legal historians and commentators as the "Tichborne Claimant", who in two celebrated court cases both fascinated and shocked Victorian society in the 1860s and 1870s.
Sir Alexander James Edmund Cockburn, 12th Baronet was a British jurist and politician who served as the Lord Chief Justice for 21 years. He heard some of the leading causes célèbres of the nineteenth century.
The Tichborne Dole is a traditional English festival of charity which is held in the village of Tichborne, Hampshire, during the Feast of the Annunciation. The festival is centered on the handing out of donations of flour, which have been blessed by the local parish priest, from the front of Tichborne House.
There have been five baronetcies created for people with the surname Napier, three in the Baronetage of England, one in the Baronetage of Nova Scotia and one in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom. As of 2014 two of the creations are extant.
There have been nine baronetcies created for persons with the surname Moore, two in the Baronetage of England, one in the Baronetage of Ireland, two in the Baronetage of Great Britain and four in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom. As of 2014 two creations are extant and one is considered dormant.
Peers of the Realm have been associated with Australia since early in its history as a British settlement. Many peers served as governors of the Australian colonies, and in the days when the practice of appointing British governors-general was current, the great majority were peers.
In Search of the Castaways is a 1962 American adventure film starring Maurice Chevalier and Hayley Mills in a tale about a worldwide search for a shipwrecked sea captain. The film was produced by Walt Disney Productions and directed by Robert Stevenson from a screenplay by Lowell S. Hawley, based upon Jules Verne's 1868 adventure novel Captain Grant's Children.
There have been two baronetcies created for persons with the surname Tichborne, both in the Baronetage of England. Both creations are extinct.
It's a Boy is a 1933 British comedy film directed by Tim Whelan and starring Leslie Henson, Albert Burdon and Edward Everett Horton. It is a farce about a blackmailer who attempts to demand money from a young woman on the brink of marriage. It was based on the 1931 play It's a Boy by Austin Melford, an English adaption of the 1926 play Hurra, ein Junge by Franz Arnold and Ernst Bach. with sets designed by the art director Alex Vetchinsky.
The Tichborne Affair is a 1977 Australian television film directed by Carl Schultz and starring Hugh Keays-Byrne, Neil Fitzpatrick, and Ken Goodlet. It is based on the Tichborne case.
William Cresswell, was an inmate of the Parramatta Lunatic Asylum, in New South Wales who was considered as a claimant in the Tichborne case.
Theresa Mary Doughty Tichborne or Orton (1866–1939) was the daughter of Arthur Orton, a claimant in the 19th century Tichborne case, who continued her father's claim into the 1920s.
Sir Henry Tichborne, 3rd Baronet was a Hampshire landowner and Roman Catholic baronet of the later Stuart period.
Henry Tichborne was the 7th Baronet Tichborne of Tichborne in Hampshire.
The Fraud is a historical novel based on the Tichborne case written by Zadie Smith and published by Penguin in 2023.
