After the fire at the Big House, Jamie and Claire believe the newspaper got everything wrong about the fire. However, when Claire comes across Tom Christie in Wilmington; he tells her he was the one who put the obituary in the newspaper. He’d heard about the fire and believed them dead. He couldn’t let her death pass without being acknowledged. He was surprised to find out both Jamie and Claire survived.
This also means Brianna and Roger did not change history by coming back in time to warn Jamie and Claire. Brianna believed they would die in this fire but they never did so despite their coming back and Brianna playing into history by making the very matches that caused the fire; they didn’t change anything.
