To return to Longevity. The following additional instances are mostly of
our own time:
Among Lawyers, Francis Maseres, fifty years Cursitor-Baron of the
Court of Exchequer, died 1824, at the age of 93: he was a ripe
classical scholar, and one of the ablest mathematicians of his day.
The Eldon family present three noteworthy examples: Mr. Scott, the
Newcastle merchant, father of Lord Stowell and the Earl of Eldon,
died 1800, at the age of 92: the two eminent sons, Stowell, 1836, at
91, and Eldon, 1838, at 87. Lord Plunket, the statesman and lawyer,
who died 1854, had reached 90. Lord Chancellor Campbell, who in his
busy law-life wrote many volumes of biography, attained the age of
81.
Sir William Blizard, the Surgeon, who died in 1835, in his 94th
year, rose to eminence under many disadvantages. With all his
activity and industry, except a fever caught by working night and
day in the dissecting-room, his health never failed him till the
last; he was temperate; and the only wine he drank was Cape. Sir
William Burnett, the physician and scientific inventor, reached 82.
In 1862 two eminent Mathematicians died within a month of each
other: Jean Baptiste Biot, aged 88; and Peter Barlow, 86. Prof.
Narrien, of Sandhurst, died 1860, at 77; and, same year and age,
Finlaison, the actuary.
Francis Place, the Westminster Politician, who died 1854, had
reached 82. The Duc de Pasquier, the celebrated French statesman,
attained the great age of 96: he died 1862, and was the oldest
statesman of our time. Talleyrand, next to Napoleon the most
extraordinary man of the revolutionary period of France, died 1838,
aged 84.
The oldest Poets of our time were W. L. Bowles, 1850, aged 88; same
year, Wordsworth, poet-laureate, 80; James Montgomery, 1854, at 82;
Samuel Rogers, 1855, aged 96; Arndt, the German poet, 1860, at 91;
and Dr. Croly, the poet and divine, 86.
Mitscherlich, the German Philologist, died 1854, at 94; same
year, Gresnall, biographer, 89, and Faber, theologian, 80.
Hamner-Purgstall, the Oriental historian, who died 1856, had
attained 87; 1857, Hincks, the Orientalist, 90.
Sir John Stoddart, the Newspaper editor, who died 1855, had reached
85,—a rare age for a public journalist. John Sharpe, the tasteful
_littérateur_, who died 1860, reached 83.
Dr. Lingard, the Historian, died 1851, aged 82. In 1859, Hallam, the
historian; same year, Elphinstone, the historian of India, aged 81.
John Britton, the Topographer and antiquary, who died 1857, had
reached 86: he was cheerful and chirping almost to the end. His
brother topographer, Brayley, died 1854, aged 85. John Adey Repton,
the architect and archæologist, died 1860, aged 86; Joseph Hunter,
archæologist, 1861, 78.
Kirby, the Entomologist, who died 1860, had reached 91. Professor
Jameson, the naturalist, died 1854, aged 81. Brunel, the engineer of
the Thames Tunnel, died 1849, aged 81. Captain Manby, who invented
apparatus for saving shipwrecked persons, and who died 1854, had
reached 89. Sir John Ross, the Arctic navigator, died 1856, at 79.
The chemists, Andrew Ure, at 79, and Thenard, at 80, died 1857.
Baron Humboldt, who died 1859, reached 92; same year, Sir G.
Staunton, the Chinese scholar, at 79. Colonel Leake, the geographer,
1860, at 83; and in the same year Carl Ritter, the geographer, 81;
and Bishop Rigaud, astronomer, 85.
In 1858 died an unusually large number of Men of Science and
Letters, and Artists, at great ages. Count Radetzsky, at 92;
Creuzer, the German antiquary, 87; Thomas Tooke, political
economist, 85; three musical composers, Neukomm, 80; J. B. Cramer,
88; and Horsley, 84;—Esenbach, botanist, 82; Aimé de Bonpland, 85;
Robert Brown, botanist, 84; Bunting, Wesleyan preacher, 80; Mrs.
Marcet, educational writer, 89; Edward Pease, “the Father of
Railways,” 92; Robert Owen, socialist, 87; Richard Taylor, of the
_Philosophical Magazine_, 77.
In 1860 we lost the following eminent Engineers: Vicat (France),
aged 75; General Pasley, 80; Eaton Hodgkinson, 72; Sir Howard
Douglas, 86. In 1862 there died General Tulloch, at 72; and James
Walker, at 81; and in 1860, Jesse Hartley, 80.
Charles Macklin, the oldest English Actor and playwright, who died
1797, had reached the age of 107: for his last twenty years he never
took off his clothes, except to change them, or to be rubbed over
with warm brandy or gin; he ate, drank, and slept without regard to
set times, but according to his inclination.
M. Delphat, the French Musician, who died 1855, had reached 99; and
in the same year died Robert Linley, the violoncellist, at 83. John
Braham lived far beyond the usual age of singers, namely, to his 82d
year: he died February 17, 1856; he first sung in public when ten
years old. Ludwig Spohr, the German composer, died 1859, at 80.
Some aged persons have literally fallen asleep in death. Sir
Christopher Wren passed his latter years at Hampton Court, and his
townhouse in St. James’s-street. He caught cold, and this hastened
his death. He was in town; he was accustomed to sleep a short time
after dinner; and on February 25, 1723, his servant, thinking his
master had slept longer than usual, went into his room, and found
Wren dead in his chair; he was in his 91st year. James Elmes, who
wrote Wren’s life, died 1862, aged 80.
Copley, the Painter, died 1815, aged 78; his son, Lord Lyndhurst, in
1863, attained his 91st year: his mother lived to see her son a
second time Lord High Chancellor. Stothard, for several months
before his decease, though his bodily infirmities prevented his
attending to his labours as an artist, would not relinquish his
attendance at the meetings and lectures of the Royal Academy and in
the library, notwithstanding extreme deafness prevented his hearing
what was passing. Mr. Constable, in a letter to a friend, written in
1838, says: “I passed an hour or two with Mr. Stothard on Sunday
evening. Poor man! the only elysium he has in this world he finds in
his own enchanting works. His daughter does all in her power to make
him happy and comfortable.” Leslie remarks that Stothard must have
possessed great constitutional serenity of mind; he was also, no
doubt, much supported by his art. His easel, indeed, bore evidence
of the many years he had passed before it; the lower bar, on which
his foot rested, being nearly worn through. He died April 27, 1834,
in his 80th year, at his house in Newman-street, where he had
resided more than forty years.
Sir M. A. Shee, Painter, P.R.A., died 1850, at the age of 80. J. M.
W. Turner, the greatest landscape painter, R.A., 1851, at 77; and
1854, Geo. Clint, painter of humour, 82; Wachter, the famous
historical painter, who died 1852, reached 90. Two aged Frenchmen
died 1853: Fontaine, the architect, 90; and Renouard, bibliographer,
98. James Ward, the animal painter, who died 1859, reached 91;
Alfred Chalon, 1860, at 80; and in 1859, David Cox, founder of our
Water-Colour School, 76.
In 1850 died Schadow, the Hungarian Sculptor, 86. In 1856, Sir R.
Westmacott, the sculptor, R.A.; and next year, Christian Rauch, the
German sculptor, at 80.
Matthew Cotes Wyatt, the Sculptor of the colossal Wellington statue,
died 1862, at 86. The oldest engraver of the above period was John
Landseer, who died 1852, aged 90.
Sir John Soane, R.A., the Architect, died 1837, having reached the
age of 84, bequeathing his museum, in Lincoln’s-inn Fields, to the
nation. Sir John was the son of a Berkshire bricklayer, and by his
own energy rose to eminence as an architect: he designed a greater
number of public edifices than any contemporary. His last work
(1833), the State-Paper Office, in St. James’s-park, was very unlike
any other of his designs; it was taken down in 1862.
Foster, the Artist, of Derby, celebrated the hundredth anniversary
of his birthday on November 8, 1862, when he was entertained by his
friends in the county hall. Mr. Foster served under Abercrombie in
Egypt, and left the army on the day on which Nelson died. He has
been five times married; and his youngest child, born sixty-eight
years after his eldest, is now (1862) only ten years of age.
The great ages in the following records must be considered very
remarkable:
Mr. Henry H. Breen, writing from St. Lucia, states that Louis Mutal,
a Negro, died in the island in 1851, at the age of 135 years. Mutal
was a native of Macouba, in the island of Martinique, and about 1785
settled in St. Lucia as a dealer in trade; after his death was found
among his papers his marriage contract with his slave, Marie
Catherine, in 1771, which establishes the fact of his being then 55
years of age, and consequently of his having been born in 1716. This
is followed by a certificate, showing that the marriage contract was
published and recorded in 1772. The date of his death in the parish
register has been carefully verified by Mr. Breen, who adds: “There
are now living in this island several persons of the age of 90, or
upwards,” in a population of about 26,000 souls. The particulars
are:
Madame Toraille, coloured aged 90
Madame Morel, coloured ” 90
Madame Jacob, coloured ” 92
Madame St. Philip, white ” 92
Madame Guy de Mareil, white ” 93
Mademoiselle Vitalis, white ” 96
Madame Anne, black ” 102
Madame Coudrey, coloured ” 106
Madame Baudoin, white ” 106 [65]
Another Correspondent, writing from Malta in 1855, states that Tony
Proctor, a free coloured man, died at Tallahassee, Florida, June 16,
1854, aged 112. He was at the battle of Quebec, as the servant of an
English officer, in 1759; and he was at the beginning of the
revolutionary war in the vicinity of Boston, at the time the tea was
thrown overboard; and was afterwards present at the battle of
Lexington.[66]
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Footnote 65:
Communicated to _Notes and Queries_, August 4, 1855.
Footnote 66:
_Notes and Queries_, September 8, 1855.
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