The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1869-10-07
EBENsBURG, PA, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 7, 1869

a few from various authorities. The age
of l20 has been claimed for Ursula
Chicken (what chicken), who died at
Holderness in 1922 William Jugall,
faithful old servant of the Webster fami-
ly, at Battle Abbey, in Sussex, who died
1898, and TO whom a monument was
erected in Battle Churchyard Mr.. Cot
trell, who died at Philadelphia in 1851,
leaving a wife aged 116, to whom he had
been married ninety-eight years and
Duchess of Buccleugh, who had lived
ftweniy years a maiden, fifty years a
wife, and fifty years a widow and died
in 1928. Blackwood's Magazine spoke
in 1921 of Mr.. Leyne, who had just
then died at the age of 12l, in the United
States, having lived there under four Brit
ish sovereigns before the rupture in 1774;
he left widow 110 years old. A hoary-
| headed negro, who was one of the lions
of New York at the International Exhi-
bition of 1858. was said to be 124 years
old. An epitaPh in All-Saints' Church
| Northampton, celebrates the name of a
person who died in 17O6, at tthe age of 126.
A History of Virginia which gives tough
list of very aged persons in that State, in
cludes the name of Wonder Booker, a
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 in 1910, at the age of
| 126, having been born in the reign of
| Queen Elizabeth.
Another decade, embracing ages be-
tween $50 and 140, is not without its re-
cords. William Beatty, soldier who
had fought at the battle of the Boyne, in
1000. died in l774, at the age of $50.
| Peter Garden figures in an engraving con-
tanned in the Perth Musuem. as having
died in 1775, at the age of l31. Mrs.
Keith, who die6 at Newman, in 1772, at
the age of 1873, left behind her three
| daughters, one of whom was fair dam
sci of 100. Louis Mutel, free negro in
St Lucia, was repute1 to; be 135 years cid
when he died in 1851 ; although he mar
ried so late in life as SIS, he survived that
event eighty years. Silliman's Journal
mentions one Henry Francisco in a more
circumstantial manner than is usual in this
class of records He was born in 1886,
left France in 1851, witnessed the coro-
nation of Queen Anne in 1902, fought
under Marlborough, then went to Ameri-
ca, was wounded and taken prisoner dur
ing the Revolutionary War, and was liv-
ing in Albany in 1922, at the age of So.
We may we'll suppose that lives of seven
score must be few and far between, even
when credulity comes to our aid. A par
ish register at Everton, Bedfordshire, men
tions the Rev. Thomas Rudyard, vicar Of
that parish, as having died at the age of
l40, dnring the reign of Charles IL. But
the most famous instance was that of the
Countess of Desmond, of whom the popu-
lar account is, that she was born in the
second half of the fifteenth century that
she married the Earl of Desmond in Eds
ward Tvs tiae; that she had three COM
| plete GentitioDs or sets of natural teeth
during her long career; that she appeared
at the court of James |. in 1914, and
that she was wont to go to market on foot
almost to the day of her death, at the age
of 40.
But we have now to speak of venerable
persons who are claimed to have exceeded
the longevity even of the tough old Count
ess. A slab on the floor of Abbey Dore
Church, Herefordshire, records the death
of Elizabeth Lewis, in l715, at the age
of 141 and the parish register of Frod-
sham, in Cheshire, contains the name of
Thomas Hough, who died at the same
age.
During a celebrated beraldfc contest, in
1885, between Lord Scrope and Sir Rob
ert Grosvenor, it became important to OBJ
tain the oldest available living testimony
concerning the holding of certain titles and
Insignia and among the witnesses bro't
forward were Sir j John Sully, aged los,
and especially John Thirlwall, an esquire
of Northumberland, aged las. Whether
the judges had any doubt of the correct
ness of this age we are not told.
There are, considering the clrcumstan-
ces, remarkably full details concerning
another veteran of 145, named Christian
Jacob Drachenberg. He was born in
Sweden, in 1926, lived chiefly as a sailor
till 1894, and was then made captive
by Barbary corsairs. Being kept as a
slave till 1710, he made his escape, and
served once again as a seaman till I'LL,
when he was 81 years old. At the age
of 106, being indignant at incredulity ex-
pressed concerning his age, he walked
long distance on purpose to procure cer-
tificate of the year of his birth. In 1875
he was presented to the King of Denmark;
and in 1887 he was married. brisk
bridegroom of 100 to blooming widow
of 60! He walked about in the town of
Aarhuus in 1883, at the age of 133 but
thirteen more years were in store for him,
seeing that he did not die till 1872, when
he had completed his l45th year. The
case was considered sufficiently important
to deserve place in the English Cyclo-
paedla, which contains an article or Drach-
enberg, attributed to one of the most
trustworthy of literary men.