Middletown transcript., 1869-08-21

was Hlso Iuc aye Clalineu lOr DOnhlu NC
Gregor, Skye farmer in the last century
Mr.. John Riva, stockbroker, died in HI,
at the age of 118, having been accustomed
to walk to Office till within few days of
his death and if the parish register of Ir-
thington, Northumberland is to be relied
upon, of similar age was Robert Bowman,
when he died in 1929. In hospital at
Moscow, there was an old man, who was
wont to say that he enlisted in the Russian
army in the time of Peter the Great if so,
he could hardly have been less than 119 at
the time when an English traveller visited
him few years ago. Mr.. Snoyd, in 49,
33, saw gaunt, large-limbed, exceedingly
wrinkled old woman at Lanslebourg, in
Savoy, who said she was born in IVA,
and remembered events that took place in
1721.
Of course when we come to ages between
10 and l3O, We must not expect the in
stances to be very numerous; but let US jot
down few from various authorities The
age of 120 has been claimed for Ursual
Chicken { what chicken y who died at
Holderness in 1922; William Jugall, a
faithful old servant of the Webster family,
at Battle Abbey, in Sussex, who died in
1898, and to whom monument was cree
ted in Battle church-yard Mr.. Charles
Cottrcll, who died at Philadelphia in 17G1,
leaving wife Gagged 1l5), to whom he had
been married nincty-cight years; and
Duchess of Bucclough, who (according to
volume published by the Rev. John Dun,
of Auchinlech) had ''lived twenty years
maiden fifty years a wife and fifty years q
widow" and died in 1928. B!ackrood's $
Magazine spoke in 1921 of Mr.. Charles
Leyne, who had Just died at the age of 121
in the United States, having lived there
under four British sovercigns before the
rupture in 1774; he left widow, who was
one of the lions of New York, at the time
of the International Exhibition of 1853 in
that city, was said to be 124 years old
but we do not know whether this was one of
Mr.. Barnum's wonders The Bodlein
Library contains a newsletter Of June l,
1924, in which is a paragraph to the effect,
that, as the courtiors were going to St.
James, to be presented to George L., they
were attracted by venerable woman, who
stated herself. to BE- l24 years cid; she
had kept shop at Kendall during the Civil
Wars in the days of Charles l., and was
the mother of nine children at the time the
unfortunate monarch was executed (l649).
An cpitaph in All Saints Church, North
anton, celebrates the name of person who
died in 1905, at the age of 1875. A His
tory Of Virginia." which gives tough
list of very aged persons in that state, in
cludes the name of Wonder Booker, slave
who received the FIRST of these two names
because he was wonder; he worked in his
masters garden till III years old, and died
born in the reign of Queen Elizabeth
Owen Tuder, who boasted of being dcscen-
dcd from Henry VII, died at Llangollen,
1771, at the age of 127. This was also
recorded as the age of John Newell, who
died at Michaelstown, 1761 he claimed to
be the grandson of the celebrated old Parr
(of whom VIC shall speak presently. The
GenHeman'S lMgnaine in 1772, recorded
the death of Mr. Abraham Strodtman, at
the age of 1913. London claimed to have
an inhabitant of the same age in 1924, in
the person of Mrs. Jane Skrimshaw.
Another decade, embracing ages be-
tween 1870 and 140, is not without its rec
ords in the pages of country histories and
antiquarian publications. William Beat
ty, soldier who had fought at the Battle
of the Boyne, in 1890, died in IVA, at
the age of 1870. Peter Garden figures in
an engraving contained in the Perth Muse
UNI as having died in 1775, at the age of
131. Mrs. Keith, who died at Ncwnham,
in 1772, at the age of 1873, left behind her
three dauthters, one of whom was fair
damsel of 100. Louis Mutel, free negro
in St. Lucia, was reputed to be 135 years
old when he died in 1851 ; althoug gh he
married so late in life as 30, he survived
that event eighty years. iStillmams Jour
nal mentions one Henry Francisco in a
more circumstancial manner than is usual
in this class of records. He was born in
1886, left France in 1901, witnessed the
coronation of Queen Anne in 1902, fought
under Marlborough, then went to Ameri-
ca, was wounded and taken prisoner du.
ring the American war, and was living near
Albany in 1922, at the age of 1856. The
venerable age 1873 is put down for John
M'Donagh, who died at Ennis, in Ireland,
in 1863.
We may we'll suppose that the lives of
seven score must be few and far between,
even when credulity comes to our aid. A
parish register at Eventon, Bedfordshire,
mentions the Rev. Thomas Rudyard vicar
of that parish, as having died at the age of
140 during the reign of Charles II. A
negro named Easter, is set down az hav-
ing attained like age in 1854. But the
most famous instance was that of the Coun-
tess of Desmond-a subject of much and
eager controversy. Whether such per-
son ever lived at all, and whether if she liv-
ed. there is really trustworthy evidence of
her age, are questions which have been
treated at full in no loss important work
than the Quarterly Reviep. The popular
account, at all events, Is, that She was
born in the second half of the fifteenth GEN.
tury; that she married the Earl of Des-