My Family Tree

LAMERSTON, Mabelle

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Families

Narrative

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The Tichborne Dole
As Lady Mabella lay dying, she asked her husband to leave a charitable bequest in a dole of bread to be distributed to any poor folk who shouldapply for it. Sir Roger Tichborne, somewhat heartlessly, agreed to give, for this purpose, the corn from all the land which his dying wife could crawl around in an allotted time. She crawled around a 23 acre field, now called The Crawls. Since 1150, in Tichborne village, on Lady Day (March 25) each year, the flour is distributed to the poor.
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Excerpt from a booklet describing the history of Tichborne Village:
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The Tichborne Dole
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Towards the end of the eighteenth century, Dole Day became a very rowdyaffair, attracting the dissolute and dishonest from far and wide. This, at least, was the belief of the local gentry and magistrates and in 1796 the dole was temporarily discontinued. Local folk, however, remembered the final part of the Tichborne legend. Lady Mabella had laid a curse on any of her successors who should fail to distribute her charitable dole. The penalty for such failure would be a generation of seven daughters, the family name would die out and the ancient house fall down. When part of old Tichborne House fell down in 1803, this was seen asan ominous portent and the curse seemed to have been fulfilled when Sir Henry Tichborne, who succeeded to the baronetcy in 1821, produced seven daughters but no male heir.
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The Tichborne Claimant

By this unlikely coincidence, the baronetcy and the vast family estatesin several counties should have been inherited by a young nephew of Sir Henry, called Roger Tichborne. Roger was born in Paris in 1829 and after a short and unhappy life was feared lost at sea off the coast of South America in 1854. But his mother never gave up hope of seeing him again and she inserted advertisements in the press offering a reward forthe discovery of her missing son.

Eventually news came from Australia that her son had been found. Not to be sure the slim, youthful Roger but an enormously fat man in early middle age. In spite of this, the mother recognized her 'son' who became known as the Tichborne Claimant, because he claimed as his inheritance the vast family fortune.

Apart from the mother, the other members of the family proclaimed him an impostor. But many local folk who had known Roger before his disappearance, supported the Claimant. One of his staunchest supporters was Mr. Helsby of Tichborne Villa(....). With so much wealth at stake, the mysterious and romantic case caused an international sensation. A civillaw suit, in which the Claimant tried to gain a right to the Tichbornefortunes, lasted 103 days. The Claimant lost and there followed a criminal action in which he was tried for perjury.

This trial, which lasted for ten months was the longest ever held in this country. The prosecution tried to establish that the Claimant was in fact Arthur Orton, son of a Wapping butcher. The Claimant was found guilty and was sentenced to fourteen years penal servitude. This, however, did not end the controversy. Some local people still believe that the Claimant may have been a member of the Tichborne family, but the full truth of this extraordinary story will never be known.
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www.hampshirechronicle.co.uk/archives/tich.html

The custom of the Tichborne Dole dates back around 800 years to the reign of King Henry II and it looks a safe bet to last another eight centuries.

Not that most of the recipients actually need the dole - one gallon of flour per adult and half per child. They just don't want to miss the occasion, which is an important link with the past and a fine chance to meet the neighbours. The Dole is held every Lady Day, March 25th, regardless of the day of the week and around two tons of high-grade self-raising flour is dispensed. That figure can be 20 per cent higher when Lady Day falls on a weekend.

Villagers bring carrier bags, pillow cases and any other suitable receptacle. Their booty - a family of six merits the maximum of 28 lbs - is worth having in any age and is particularly welcome to the elderly and needy. Before the flour is apportioned, however, it is blessed and the huge flour box is sprinkled with incense and holy water. Then a blessingis made on the soul of Lady Mabella Tichborne, who started it all.

Lady Mabella, a woman noted for her charity and piety, was married to Roger de Tichborne, son of Walter de Tichborne, direct male line ancestor of the Tichborne of Tichborne. The surname, incidentally, derives from the nearby Itchen, with the suffix "bourn", meaning a stream. Roger, arough and ready soldier, was a complete contrast to his saintly wife and even the imminent death of Mabella failed to arouse any compassion.

Her last request that the value of a small portion of the Tichborne estates be given annually to the poor of the parish in the form of a dole was greeted with typical brutality. No supporter of charity, Roger answered his aged wife's plea by saying that he would agree to give every year the value of a as much land as she could encompass while holding a blazing torch in her hand.

Legend has it that Mabella, who was crippled by a wasting disease, crawled around 23 acres of land, upon which she charged her husband and hisheirs to forever give the produce value of that land to the poor. But mindful of Roger's black character, Mabella added a rider to her request. She said that should the dole ever be stopped then seven sons would be born to the house, followed immediately by a generation of seven daughters, after which the name would die out and the ancient house fall into ruin. To this day there is a field at Tichborne known as "The Crawls".

The custom of giving the dole, in the form of bread, continued for over600 years, until 1794, when owing to abuse by vagabonds and vagrants, it was abolished by order of the Magistrates. Clearly somebody had forgotten Mabella's curse, for at that time Sir Henry Tichborne had seven sons. In 1802, George, the sixth son, died at the age of 13; and the sameyear the old house partly fell and was partly pulled down.

Four years later, John, the fifth son died unmarried in the East Indies. Another four years saw Benjamin, the second son, die in China. He, too, had been a bachelor. A few years later, seventh son Roger died. He was married without children. However, Henry, the eldest son, managed tofather seven children - all of them girls. Edward, the third son, changed his name to Doughty in 1826. He produced the male heir so wanted. But in 1835, the six-year-old Henry suddenly died. Edward Doughty immediately revived the Dole, which has continued ever since.

James, the fourth son, had married in 1827 and produced two son, one born before and the other after the restoration of the Dole. The eldest, Roger Charles Tichborne, was lost at sea in 1845, and was impersonated two decades later. The unsuccessful claimant was unmasked as Arthur Orton, a butcher. But the legal case dragged on for two years and cost the family ú100,000 to defend their estates.

Alfred Joseph, the youngest of James's sons, was the only one to survive Mabella's deathbed curse. He was the great grandfather of the late Sir Anthony Doughty Tichborne, the 14th baronet.

Only those families in Tichborne, Cheriton and Lane End are entitled tothe dole.


Copyright: Hampshire Chronicle
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www.whatsgoingon.com/coolest/place/20000325/

Ever loaned a cup of flour to a neighbor? How about thousands of cups? Today's Tichborne Dole in Hampshire County, England, an annual ceremony where all who show up at Tichborne Manor are given a gallon of flour that's been blessed by incense and holy water. Only locals may apply. This random act of flour-giving is the fallout of a story about a saintly woman and her stingy husband.


One dark day in 1150, Lady Mabella Tichborne of Tichborne Manor lay dying. The good woman had just one wish before she died: for her husband to give a loaf of bread yearly to all who asked for it on Lady Day, the anniversary of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Lady Tichborne's husband, Sir Roger de Tichborne, sadistically suggested to the charity-hearted and quickly fading Lady Mabella that he would dole out an annual gift in her name equal to the value of as much land as she could traverse holding a lighted torch. Sir Roger was pretty smug--he never imagined she'd be able to leave her death-bed. He would later think, "Oops."


This hardy dame had a reputation for working miracles. In fact, becauseof her devoutness, a saint had given her a billet of wood that had thepower to preserve her life as long as it was unconsumed. When Lady Mabella grew old and was ready to die, she threw the billet into the fire.After Mabella's request, greedy Sir Roger fished the billet out of thefireplace, had Lady Mabella carried to the corner of the park, lit thebillet, and placed it in Mabella's feeble hand. Determined, Mabella dragged her skeletal body, crawling around a whopping 23 acres--a near equivalent of 12 football fields--of the richest and most productive lands in the country before the torch blew out. This land is today called The Crawls.


Right before she bit the dust, Lady Mabella called the household round her bed and prophesied that the House of Tichborne would be prosperous as long as the annual charity was perpetuated, but the House would fall if the handout were discontinued or appropriated for another purpose. A curse would be on her descendants if the dole was withheld because of greed, and the Tichborne family would fail due to a lack of male issue.


Thus began the Tichborne Dole. Every March 25th, faithful descendants of the remarkable Lady doled out 1,400 loaves of bread to all who gathered to receive them. If the bread ran out, the Tichborne Manor residentsgave a two pence to each remaining applicant.


On Lady Day in 1796, neighbors of Tichborne complained that the gypsies, thieves, and other shady characters gathered at Tichborne were too unruly, and that the Tichborne Dole was to cease. As a result of the stoppage, Sir Harry James Tichborne, the heir to the Tichborne baronetcy, gave birth to seven daughters and no sons, endangering the continuance of the Tichborne name. Thanks to the reinstatement of the Dole, his brother Edward fathered a male heir.


Eventually, the progeny of Lady Tichborne stopped giving out bread and began handing out bags of flour sprinkled with holy water to all supplicants. That is the tradition that will be repeated on this the day at the doors of the House of Tichborne, when the whole town shows up to get abag of flour and socialize with their neighbors. Let's hope that the gypsies and thieves don't make too much of a ruckus.--JC

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