The most remarkable facts in antiquity on this subject that seem to rest on respectable authority, appear in the persons of this description stated to have been living in Italy in the time of Vespasian. But, though taken from a public document, the number is so great for one portion only of Italy, that I cannot avoid doubting the accuracy of the account as to its numerical quantity.*

Three instances of men, of as many different countries, who were contemporaries in the fifth century, show that the laws of such longevity were in continuing operation. These were, St. Patrick of Ireland; Llywarch Hen, the Welsh Bard; and Attila, the formidable king of the Huns.†

England and Ireland were distinguished by several examples of this kind in the seventeenth century. Of these, two

Burnett says of the Bermudas: "One may reasonably suppose that the natives would live two hundred years."-Theory, vol. i., p. 275, 6.

* Lord Bacon thus states it, from his ancient authority: The year of our Lord 76, the reign of Vespasian, is memorable, for in that year was a taxing. Now taxing is the most authentic method for knowing the age of men. In that part of Italy lying between the Apennine mountains and the river Po there were found 124 persons that either equalled or exceeded a hundred years of age, namely

54

57

2

100 years each

3

140

Besides the above, Parma contained five, whereof three were one hundred and twenty years, and two one hundred and thirty; one in Placentia one hundred and thirty-one; one in Faventia one hundred and thirtytwo; one in Rimino of one hundred and fifty, whose name was Marcus Aponius, and others.-Lord Bacon's Hist. Life and Death.

† St. Patrick was one hundred and twenty-two; Llywarch Hen, whose "Welsh Poems" are still existing, was one, hundred and fifty; Attila died the day after his second nuptials, at one hundred and four. Some passages from Llywarch's "Poems" are quoted in the "Hist. Angl. Saxons," vol. i., and in the "Vindication of the Ancient Welsh Bards." Mr. Owen Pugh published them, with a translation.

The Countess of Desmond died in 1612, aged one hundred and fortyfive; on the ruin of her family she was obliged, at the age of one hundred and forty, to travel from Bristol to London, to solicit relief from James. Mrs. Eckleston, of Philip's Town, King's County, Ireland, died in 1691, aged one hundred and forty-three. In 1671, Robert Montgomery, born in Scotland, died at Skipton in Craven at one hundred and twentyseven; and Gustavus Holme, a Dover pilot, was buried in 1685, at Stoke, near Canterbury, in his one hundred and thirty-second year. Thomas Damne was buried in 1648, aged one hundred and fifty-four; on his gravestone at Leighton, near Minshal, in Cheshire, his age is cut in

have been long considered as the patriarchs of English longevity. The celebrated Haller had collected 1111 instances of persons who lived from one hundred to one hundred and sixty-nine.t An English bookseller made a still more copious enumeration, and his list contains notices of 1687 persons who died in the course of the last century, of various ages, from one hundred to one hundred and eighty-five. Of these above 1600 were natives of the British Islands.

words at length, and the church register of his burial and age is signed by the vicar and churchwardens.-Eaton's Human Longevity, p. 5-12.

These were, Thomas Parr, of Winnington, in Shropshire, who died in 1635, aged one hundred and fifty-two; he was a poor countryman, who married his first wife in his eighty-eighth year, and had two children, who died young. Taken by the Earl of Arundel to be presented to Charles I., and retained as a part of his household, his high feeding there after his former homely diet soon brought on death. Dr. Harvey found his internal functions so sound, that he would have probably lived much longer if he had adhered to his usual habits. His son attained one hundred and thirteen; his grandson one hundred and nine; his great grandson one hundred and twenty-four; two other grandsons, who died in Ireland 1761 and 1763, were one hundred and twenty-seven.

Henry Jenkins, of Yorkshire, had a still longer life; he died at one hundred and sixty-nine years in 1670. He had taken, in 1513, at the age of twelve, a cart load of arrows to Northallerton for the army which advanced and fought the battle of Flodden Field in that year. His deposi tion in a cause in the Exchequer, preserved in the King's Remembran cer's Office, taken in April, 1665, describes him as a labourer then aged one hundred and fifty-seven years. Both these are noticed in the early part of the "Philos. Transactions."

† Haller thus classes them

This was Mr. Easton, of Salisbury. All the names in his "Human Longevity" were 1712; of these, 10 were before 1600, and 15 between 1600 and 1700. The remaining 1687 persons died between 1706 and 1799, which may be thus classed

3

from 170

to 185 years

to 170

Mr. Whitehurst's brief table contains some instances of great age not

in Mr. Easton's collection, as-

Mr. Lawrence, Scotland, one hundred and forty; Simon Jack, of Trionia, one hundred and forty-one, died 30th May, 1764; Dr. William Mead,

The extremely aged of those mentioned in the last century were Hungarians, and the statements therefore, from the distance of their locality, can be less relied on.* The oldest of this period in England was a poor Yorkshireman, who in 1768 reached his one hundred and fiftieth year.t An Irish officer of the army died in 1765 at one hundred and forty-six ;+ and, about the same time, an English farmer at one hundred and thirty-nine. In 1732 another Irishman reached one hundred and forty;|| and an English lady, in 1772, died at one hundred and thirty-eight, leaving a family advancing towards her own longevity. Another had, in the same year, attained one hundred and thirty-three; had also children of the same surviving tendency.** These long lives appeared in all the three

one hundred and forty-eight, Ware, died 28th Oct., 1656; Martha Waterhouse, one hundred and forty, Biesley, Yorkshire; Dumiter Radaly, one hundred and forty, Harminstead, died 16th Jan., 1782; William Evans, one hundred and forty-five, Carnarvon, living in 1782; James Bowels, one hundred and fifty-two, Killingworth, died 15th Aug., 1656; John Brookey, one hundred and thirty-four, Devon, living 1777; and some others.

*These were, 1724, Peter Torton, of Temeswar, in Hungary, one hundred and eighty-five, a peasant.-Easton, p. 14. Of the same Ban'nat, in 1741, John Rovin, one hundred and seventy-two, and his wife, one hundred and sixty-four; both died in the same year, the one hundred and forty-eighth of their marriage, leaving two sons and two daughters. Their youngest son was one hundred and sixteen years of age.-Ïb., 23. In 1797, Jonas Surington, aged one hundred and fifty-nine, resided near Berger, in Norway.-Ib., 275.

+Francis Consit, of Burythorpe, near Malton, in Yorkshire. He was very temperate in his living, occasionally eating a raw new-laid egg, and used great exercise. For the last sixty years he was maintained by his parish, and retained his senses to the last."-Ib., p. 104.

"Thomas Winslow, Esq., of Tipperary, in Ireland. He was a colonel in the army. He held the rank of a captain in the reign of Charles I., and accompanied Oliver Cromwell into Ireland:"-Ib., 87.

"Mr. Dobson, of Hatfield. By much exercise and temperate living he preserved his health; ninety-one children and grandchildren attended his funeral."-Ib., 87.

"William Leland, of Lisneskie, in Ireland. Though he lived to such a great age, he was never sick, nor lost the use of any of his faculties till the hour of his death."-Ib., 16.

"Mrs. Chum, near Litchfield, Staffordshire. She resided in the same house one hundred and three years. By frequent exercise and temperate living she attained her great longevity. She left one son and two daughters; the youngest upward of one hundred years."-Ib., 133.

**"Mrs. Keithe, of Newnham, Gloucestershire. She lived moderately, and retained her senses till within fourteen days of her death. She left three daughters; the eldest aged one hundred and eleven; the second one hundred and ten; the youngest one hundred and nine."-Ib., p. 131.

branches of our population. England exhibited the ladies just mentioned, and others.* Two of its male sex, in 1767 and 1780, were of the ages one hundred and thirty-four and one hundred and thirty-nine. The first was remarkable for having a son in his own and in his wife's old age. The other evinced that the air and habits of a great metropolis do not make such longevity impossible.‡

Scotland contained in 1776 and in 1793 two individuals of the several ages of one hundred and thirty-six and one hundred and thirty-seven; the latter distinguished by a monument from his last noble patron for his moral worth and services. Ireland, in both its sexes, exhibited also instances of their great tenacity of life. Three of its females reached one hundred and thirty-three, one hundred and thirty-five, and one hundred and thirty-six. The husband of the latter nearly equalled her, being one hundred and twenty-eight. Another old Irishman was one hundred and thirty-six, a farmer.¶

One English gentleman, who attained one hundred and

* As, in 1769, Mrs. Margaret Foster died at one hundred and thirtyseven, near Brampton, in Cumberland. Her daughter had departed a short time before, aged one hundred and five,-Easton, 115.

† Francis Ange, born at Stratford-upon-Avon, but died at Maryland, in America, aged one hundred and thirty-four. He remembered the death of King Charles I., and left England soon after. His wife at eighty had a son, who was thirty-one years at his father's decease (ib., 99), consequently was born in his one hundred and third year.

In 1780, "Mr. Evans, aged one hundred and thirty-nine, of Spitalstreet, Spitalfields, London. He had all his senses to the last; he was seven years old when King Charles was beheaded."-Ib., 168.

The first was "Mr. Moval, a surgeon at Langholm, in Dumfriesshire," p. 151; the other was "Mr. Robertson, of Edinburgh. He had served a noble family there as inspector of the lead-works for four complete generations. His last lord raised a monument, with an inscription, to his memory, as having discharged his duties with zeal and fidelity for one hundred and twenty years."—Ib., 253.

In 1775 died Peter Garden, of Aucherness, near Edinburgh, aged one hundred and thirty-one. He remembered very well having been employed in the woods to cut handles for spears in the civil wars."-Ib., 149.

In 1761, “ Elizabeth Marchant, aged one hundred and thirty-three, of Hamilton's Bawn, in Ireland."-Ib., p. 62. In 1796, "Mrs. Thompson, near Dublin, one hundred and thirty-five. She was very active, and by a regular mode of living, together with much exercise, attained so great an age."-Ib., 273. In 1769 died "Catharine Noon, otherwise Moony, at one hundred and thirty-six, near Tuam, in Ireland. She was very temperate at her meals."-Ib., 106.

In 1759, "James Sheile, of Bally Paden, in the county of Kilkenny.” -Ib., 52.

VOL. III.-T

thirty-eight years in 1791, is interesting to us for his pecuniary accommodation and intended kindness to our illustrious Milton. I will give the statement as I find it printed—

"1791. Died, Jonathan Hartop, aged one hundred and thirty-eight, of the village of Aldborough, near Boroughbridge, Yorkshire.

"His father and mother died of the plague, in their house in the Minories, in 1666, and he perfectly well remembered the great fire of London. He was short in stature, and had been inarried five times. He left seven children, twenty-six grandchildren, seventy-four great grandchildren, and one hundred and forty great great grandchildren.

"He could read to the last without spectacles, and play at cribbage with the most perfect recollection. On Christmas day, 1789, when one hundred and thirty-six, he walked nine miles to dine with one of his great grandchildren. He remembered King Charles II., and once travelled from London to York with the facetious Killigrew.

"He ate but little, and his only beverage was milk. He enjoyed an uninterrupted flow of spirits. His third wife was an illegitimate daughter of Oliver Cromwell, who gave with her a portion amounting to about five hundred pounds. He possessed a fine portrait of the usurper, for which Mr. Hollis offered him three hundred pounds, but was refused.

"Mr. Hartop lent the great Milton fifty pounds soon after the Restoration, which the bard returned him with honour, though not without much difficulty, as his circumstances were very low. Mr. Hartop would have declined receiving it, but the pride of the poet was equal to his genius, and he sent the money with an angry letter, which was found among the curious possessions of that venerable old man." 17-*

The military profession, notwithstanding its frequent privations, fatigues, exposures, hardships, and sufferings, especially on active service, yet has comprised individuals who have reached the extreme periods of human longevity. In 1757, one of Oliver Cromwell's soldiers died at one hundred and thirty-two years old.† In 1749, a dragoon was one hundred and twenty-five at his death. A French soldier, who had served under Louis XIV. at Malplaquet, and travelled extensively afterward, reached one hundred and twenty. And the last surviver of the Duke of Marlborough's English army, who lived until 1793, was one hundred and fourteen when he ex

Easton's Human Longevity, p. 241, 2.

Alex. M'Cullock, near Aberdeen. After Cromwell, he served in the army during the three following reigns.-Ib., 46.

Alex. Bennet, of Down, in Ireland. He was a dragoon at the battle of Boddle under Charles. II.-Ib., 30. Another soldier, who had served under the reigns of George I. and George II., died in 1794, a pensioner of Chelsea Hospital, at one hundred and twenty-three.-Ib., 259.

The Sieur de la Haye died in 1774. He was at the taking of Utrecht in 1672, and at the battle of Malplaquet in 1709. He had travelled by land to Egypt, Persia, the Indies, and China. At the age of seventy he married and had five children."-Ib., 145.