Things to be Remembered in Daily Life: With Personal Experiences and RecollectionsTimbs, John
Philosophy
Things to be Remembered in Daily Life: With Personal Experiences and Recollections
Timbs, John
Encyclopedias and dictionaries
On May 28, 1802, a lunatic named James Coyle, 47 years old, was admitted
a patient into St. Patrick’s (Swift’s) Hospital, Dublin: he continued
there upwards of fifty-eight years, and eventually died July 17, 1860,
at the age of 105. There can surely be no mistake as to this great age.
Peter Breman, of Dyott-street, St. Giles’s, London, is one of the few
instances on record of long life attained by tall men: he stood 6 feet 6
inches high, and was in the army from the age of 18 nearly until his
decease, in 1769, at the age of 104 years. Another tall man, Edmund
Barry, of Watergrass-hill, Ireland, died 1822, aged 113: he was 6 feet 2
inches in height, and walked well to the last.
One John Minniken, of Maryport, Cumberland, who died 1793, aged 112, was
remarkable for the fast growth and profusion of his hair, which he sold,
in successive croppings, to a hairdresser of the town, for a penny a
day, during the remainder of his life; and more than seventy wigs were
made of Minniken’s hair.
Among aged persons of diminutive stature was Mary Jones, of Wem, Salop,
who died 1773, aged 100: she was only 2 feet 8 inches in height. Elspeth
Watson, of Perth, who died 1800, aged 115, did not exceed 2 feet 9
inches in height, but was bulky in person.
Old age can rarely withstand intense grief. John Tice, of Hagley,
Worcestershire, having recovered from a fall out of a tree when he was
80 years old, and from being much burned when he was 100, after the
death of his patron, Lord Lyttleton, became so depressed in spirits,
that he took to his bed and died. Sir Francis Burdett had withstood the
storms and tumults of political life for more than half a century, and
had reached the age of 74, when his dear wife died, Jan. 10, 1844: from
that instant Sir Francis refused food or nourishment of any kind, and he
died of intense grief on the 23d of the same month: both were buried in
the same vault, in the same hour, on the same day, in the church of
Ramsbury, Wilts.
Cardinal Fleury, the great French minister, who died in 1743, had
attained the age of 90. For fourteen years he essentially contributed to
the peace and prosperity of France; but the three last years of his
administration were unfortunate. On the death of the Emperor Charles
XI., in 1740, without male issue, a war ensued respecting the imperial
succession, the calamitous events of which preyed on the Cardinal’s mind
and occasioned his death.
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