The Butcher, the Acrobat, and the History of the Word Titch

Hello,

It appears to be inevitable that when I release a book or download, I immediately find a perfect word which I missed. This week, after releasing “Words People and Places Gave Us” (a selection of eponyms and toponyms, free to read in pdf) I then stumbled over the story of two men who gave us the word titch for somebody being small. So here it is. Think of it as a titchy eponymous postscript.

A titchy bear called Barnaby

Once upon a time (the 1860s-1870s to be more precise) there was a grieving mother whose 25 year old son and heir, Roger, had been reported lost at sea during a voyage to South America. He was due to inherit the ninth largest fortune in England, along with the title Baron of Titchbourne.

She refused to accept his death and dispatched agents far and wide to find him.

Perhaps unsurprisingly given the bait, a man turned up to claim he was Roger. The mother agreed with the claim despite his plump and fair physique contrasting with the original Roger’s slim and dark appearance. To establish his claim he took a court case which lasted 102 days and gripped the nation.

The court found that new Roger was actually a butcher from Wapping called Arthur Orton and he was guilty of perjury, although Lady Titchbourne supported his claim until her own death. Orton was imprisoned but used his fame to raise money for an appeal, which failed. In 1884 he was released and toured music halls and circuses thanks to his notoriety. Ultimately he died in poverty.

The fake Roger became so well-known that a few music hall performers adopted his name to promote their own shows. One of these was an acrobat called Harry Relph who called himself Little Titch and who was only 4 feet six inches in height. In the end it was his own height, rather than the notorious court case, which associated the word titch with the idea of being short.

Until next time happy reading, writing, and wordfooling,

Grace (@Wordfoolery)

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