There are few records so generally interesting as those of human
existence being protracted beyond “threescore years and ten,” and the
Psalmist’s limit of “fourscore years.” It is natural to expect every
man, woman, and child to take a kindred interest in such matters: the
girl or boy reads with wonder the dates upon the tombstones of very aged
persons; and old men and women approach these memorials with awe, in
proportion to their fancied distance from the same earthly bourn. All
cannot alike read the story of the pictured urn, or the mysteries of the
inverted torch or the winged mundus; but the uneducated young and old
are sensible of the solemnity of the line, “Aged 102 years;” whilst the
more pretentious “Hic jacet” only teaches the comparatively few that
The paths of glory lead but to the grave.
We are not, therefore, surprised at the implicit belief in such records
in times gone by, when no populous village in England was without a man
or woman of fourscore years old. It has, however, become of late a
matter of some moment to inquire into the authority on which statements
of extreme old age have usually rested; and the result has been to shake
the testimony of many recorded cases of great longevity.
Lord Bacon, in his _History of Life and Death_, quotes as a fact
unquestioned, that a few years before he wrote, a morris-dance was
performed in Herefordshire, at the May-games, by eight men, whose ages
in the aggregate amounted to eight hundred years! In the seventeenth
century, some time after Bacon wrote, two Englishmen are reported to
have died at ages greater than almost any of those which have been
attained in other nations. According to statements which are printed in
the _Philosophical Transactions_ of the Royal Society, as well as his
epitaph in Westminster Abbey, Thomas Parr lived 152 years and 9 months;
Henry Jenkins, 169 years. The testimony in these extraordinary instances
is, however, considered by the Registrar-General by no means conclusive,
as it evidently rests on uncertain tradition, and on the very fallible
memories of illiterate old men; for there is no mention of documentary
evidence in Parr’s case, and the births date back to a period (1538)
before the parish registers were instituted by Cromwell.
Yet parish registers are sometimes astounding; for in that of
Evercreech, in Somersetshire, occurs this entry: “1588, 20th Dec., Jane
Britton, of Evercriche, a Maidden, as she afirmed, of the age of 200
years, was buried.”
Here is a difficulty of belief cleared up. In the register of the parish
of St. Leonard, Shoreditch, is entered, among the “Burialles, Thomas
Cam, y^e 22d inst. of January 1588 (curiously enough the date of the
Somersetshire entry), Aged 207 years, Holywell-street. George Garrow,
parish clerk.” In a newspaper paragraph of 1848, this entry is stated to
add: “he was born in the year 1381, in the reign of King Richard II.,
and lived in the reigns of twelve kings and queens.” These words are
not, however, in the register; and it is evident that some mischievous
person has altered the figure 1 into 2. Sir Henry Ellis, in his _History
of Shoreditch_, gives the entry correctly as follows: “Thomas Cam, aged
107, 28 January 1588.”
Another instance, less known, but better authenticated, is that of Sir
Ralph Vernon, of Shipbrooke, who was born some time in the thirteenth
century, died at the great age of 150; and is said to have been
succeeded by his descendant in the sixth generation; he was called “Old
Sir Ralph,” or Sir R. “the long-liver.” A deed of settlement by him was
the cause of long litigation; and it is said that the papers respecting
this law-suit still exist, to prove the fact of the old knight’s
patriarchal age.[37]
In Conway churchyard is the tombstone of Lowry Owens, stated to have
died “May the 1st, 1766, aged 192;” but the inscription has evidently
been recut, and, it is presumed, with a difference, especially as the
round of the “9” is above the date-line.
In the church of Abbey Dore, Herefordshire, is a slab to the memory of
Elizabeth Lewis, who died “aged 141 years,” which is stated to be
confirmed by the parish register.
In the churchyard of Cheve Prior, Worcestershire, is a record of a man
who died at the age of 309; doubtless meant for 39, the blundering
stonecutter having put the 30 first and 9 afterwards.
In these and similar cases our belief should be in proportion to the
trustworthiness of the record, allowance being made for the imperfect
state of documents of times when writing was a comparatively rare
accomplishment. It is curious to contrast this state of things with the
chronicle of our times, when, occasionally, one day’s newspaper records
several instances of longevity:
In the _Morning Post_, January 30th, 1858, out of thirty-five deaths
recorded, with the ages, there were five upwards of 60 and under 70;
70 and under 80, seven; in 80th year and upwards, nine; one female,
95; and Mrs. E. Miles, of Bishop Lidyard, near Taunton, 112.
In the obituary of the _Times_, February 20th, 1862, were recorded
the deaths of persons who had attained the following ages: one of
103, one of 94, two of 90, one of 85, one of 84, one of 82, and
eight of 70 years and upwards. And, on April 20th of the same year,
were recorded the deaths of ten persons, whose united ages amount to
828 years, or an average of nearly 83. They comprise one of 100 and
one of 99.
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Footnote 37:
See Burke’s _Peerage and Baronetage_, ed. 1848.
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