A CENTENARIAN

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3086, 17 May 1917, Page 3

A CENTENARIAN

On Monday next, May 21, Mrs. John Vile, sen., of Paliiatua, will have attained tho hundredth anniversary of her birth,'states tho "Wairarapa Age. - '

I Mrs. Vile was born in Somersetshire, England, iu 1817, in the reign of George 111. She lias, therefore, lived under six British sovereigns. She was [ present in London at the Coronation of tho late Queen Victoria in 1837. Her maiden namo was Ann Foster. At tho ago of twenty-eight she was marI ried to the latp Mr. John Vile, who died some sixteen or seventeen years ago. Tn 1856 the family came to Now Zealand in tie ship Anne Wilson, which -was known as tho "starved ehip." The journey occupied 221 days, and when the port of was reached the passengers wero m a. condition of semi-starvation. Several (in; chiding ono of 3trs. Vile's daughters) died on tho .journey from lack of sustenance. When the facts became known to ilia then residents of Wellington an indignation meoting was held, and ifc was decided to deal in a salutary manner with the captain of tho vessel Tho latter, however, made his escape to his ship, which was lying out at sea. Tho lato Mr. John Vilo and his family piweeded to the Lower Hiitt, whoro they spent tho. first night in a barn owned by the lato Mr., Liverton. For two years they lived in vbe Hutt Valley, when they wero forced by tho floods to retreat to tho Wairarapa. In 1858 they camo to what was then known as the Three-Mile Bush, hut is now the township of Carterton. Thereafter the kto Mr. John Vilo and his oldest son (the late Mr. Job Vile, M.T.) wero employed on tho station of Messrs. Smith and Bevan's at Martinborough. Subsequently Mr. John Vilo occupied what is now known as tho Admiral Rim, near Gladstone. He and his family afterwards resided at Clareville, then at Masterton, and later ro*inoved to Pahiatua., where Mrs. Vile has lived for more than a quarter of a century. Although confined to her bed for some time back, as'the result of an accident, Mrs. Vij e still retains her mental faculties, and can discuss for hours tho stirring .events of her earlier career. Her family consisted of fivo sons and two daughters. The sons ■were tho late Mr. Job' Vile (who died at Marton), the lato Mr , . Alfred Vile (who died at Lyttelton). Messrs. William Vile, John Vile (Pahiatua), and Henry Vile, Himitangi (Palmerston North). Her daughters were the late Mrs. H. Eagle and Mrs. H. Preston, tho latter being a great-grandmother. She has twenty-one grandsons, oleven granddaughters, about eighty greatgrandchildren, and several great-great-grandchildren.