Sir Henry Tichborne, 3rd Baronet

He was the son of Sir Richard Tichborne, the second baronet (1578–1657), and Helen, his first wife and the daughter and co-heir of Robert White of Aldershot in Hampshire.

[4] However, as prominent Catholics, he and his family came under suspicion as a result of the fictitious Popish Plot in 1678, and that year his house was besieged by a mob.

Further, he was named by Titus Oates as having received a commission in a Catholic army supposedly being assembled by Pope Innocent XI.

Having recently visited Rome his friends were concerned that this might not look good and they burned his papers, including the history of the Tichborne family he had been writing.

However, Tichborne was probably already ill by this time and died in 1689 after, according to a letter of 1690: "a great while lingering, and doubtless made a happy end … knowing now so long that he was to dye".

The festival dates back to circa 1150 and was started by Lady Mabella Tichborne who, on her death bed, instructed that a donation of farm produce be made to the poor each year.