MODERN METHUSELAHS.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 7065, 17 January 1885, Page 4

MODERN METHUSELAHS.

(From the English Mechanic.) Scripture indicates that in the earlier periods of the world's history the ordinary duration of human lile was from 600 to 900 yeara and upwards. After the deluge, however, there waa a woeful falling off in years ; Shem alone, as far as we can gather, living to celebrate his fifth centennial, while the average would appear to be less than 200 years. Again, in the third century after this great cataolysm, we find a continued decrease, and one Terah justly celebrated as having completed two full centuries of life. There are many reasons, however, chief among which is the Oriental and traditional character of the Biblical records, which tend to throw discredit upon these accounts, and the number is far from few that openly assert their mythological and and apocryphal character. But, be this as it may, we find that from the days of the great lawgiver Moses down to the present era, the years allotted to man are Bcarce more than three score and ten, or at most four score " Lord Bacon singled out the year a.d. 76 as one of the most remarkable in the world's history, not only because it gave birth to new and more equitable methods of taxation, as introduced throughout the Roman Empire by Vespasian, such being based upon the age of the individual, but also because the method revealed a remarkable number of people who had more than completed a century of year 3. In the Apennine provinces of Italy alone •were found 124 to be classed in this category— viz. , 50 possessed ages varying from 100 to 110 ; three confessed to 125 ; 14 ranged from 130 to 136 ; three more were were found at 140 ; and one, Marcus Aponius, at 150. Of our century no data are as yet established whereby a just estimate may be formed ; but the three previous centuries are somewhat prolific in centenarian examples. Louisa Truxo, for instance, a negro woman of Brazil, heads the list as having completed her 175 th year in 1780, and though satisfarstory evidence of subsequent life is wanting, it is claimed that her life was prolonged at least 14 years more. Next comes Henry Jenkins, all his life either a peasant farmer or a mendicant, a native of Yorkshire, England, who was born a.d. 1500, and died December 3, 1670, or at the ape of 169 years, beating the famous Thomas Parr of 45 years before, and John Bowles, of Killingworth, who died 25 years later than Parr at the same age, by 17 years and one month. Francis Consist, another Yorkshireman, passed the way of all the earth in 1768, aged 150. Colonel Thomas Winslow, deceased in 1766, enjoyed the beauties of the "Emerald Isle" for upwards of 146 years ; and Christian Drakenberg attained a like ripe age 16 years later in Norway. In 1872, ono Evan Williams, aged 145, was living as an indigent pauper in the workhouse at Caermarlhen, Wales, but no account of his death is extant. One Ecleston, too, died in Ireland in 1691 in his 144 th year ; and just a century later Abe Baiba, a free negro, celebrated his 142 nd anniversary at Charleston, S.C. Six persona are known to have completed 140 years of life during the 18th century, among whom Thomas Parr, or, as heis familiarly known, " Old Parr," is everywhere cited as the oldest man of modern times, a distinction that was not ilia by right, and obtained probably from tbe prominence given him in history through the introduction to, and notice afforded by, his sovereign. True, for 21 years he was entitled to such a distinction, when the death of Bowles procured for him a rival, while both were eclipsed by Jenkins a quarter of a century later. Further, Parr was buried in Westminster Abbey, while his rivals obtained no more post mortem courtesy than was afforded by the Potter's Field. Of the history of Parr but little is known, but, a? a peasant yeoman and the son of John Parr, of Winnington, in the parish of Alderbury, county of Salop, Shropshire, it was presumably uneventful enough. "When 17 yeara of age ho went out to service, remaining in the employ of one farmer 18 years, when he returned home to take charge of his father's holding, the latter having become too aged to give it personal supervision. Four years later the lease expired, when it v.as renewed by Mr Lewis Patten to Mr Thomas Parr, then in his 39th year, said lease bearing the date of 1522 ; and thiain turn was renewed in 1543 by Mr John Patten ; and again by Hugh Patten in 1585 ; and subsequently (date unknown) by this latter gentleman's son — four generations of landlords. When 80 years of age Parr first felt the wounds of Cupid's darta, and he courted and married one Jane Taylor, persumably a lass in her teens, since she is described as a " young maiden," a term that in those days would be deemed inadmissable to one who had oompleted her fifteenth year, when she would be entitled to the matronly designation of " mistress," irrespective of conjugal bonds. Jane died in 1595, after 32 years of connubial bliss, having borne her spouse two childron, both of whom died at an early age. In his one hundred and sixth year an illegitimate child was born to Parr, as the result of a liaison with one Katherine Milton, for which indisoretion he waa made to do penance in Alderbury Church by standing before the congregation several Sabbaths in succession enveloped in a white sheet. After being 20 years a widower, and when at the modest age of 122, Parr again succumbed to the wiles of the •'little god," and assuaged his grief by a marriage with one Jane, widow of Anthony Adda, and daughter of one Lloyd of Gilfells, Montgomeryshire. She also was of a long-lived family, being a niece of Richard Lloyd, a centenarian, before mentioned ; and she survived her husband many years. Unfortunately for the old man, during the last year of his life he attracted the attention of the Earl of Arundel and Surrey, who was engaged in hunting up human curiosities and monßtrosities for the delectation of his royal master, Charles I. The Earl forced him, much against hia will, to accompany him to London, a most formidable journey for the time, and considering the condition of the roads throughout the Kingdom ; and we are told he had for company another curiosity in the form of a man described as an "antique-faced follow with a high and mighty no-beard" — whatever that may be. When brought before the King, the latter, with the usual abruptness and lack of courtesy that ever marked the Stuarts, demanded, "As you have lived longer than any other men, what have you done more than any other men ?" to which Parr replied, haviag reference to his unfortunate amour with Katherine Milton, "I did penance when more that 100 years old." Henceforth he was commanded to live in .London as a royal protege under the care of Arundel, who aimed to make life as agreeable as possible for him ; but wines and strong liquors, coupled with foggy atmosphere, late hours, and erratic habits, Boon worked a sad change in the man who was accustomed only to home-brewed ales, regular habits, and the pure air of the Shropshire hills ; and he finally expired November 5, 1635, having survived nine sovereigns, of whom the first was Edward the Fourth, and anticipating the execution of the tenth by only a trifle more than 14 years. Parr is said to have been an undersized man, nob more than sft 6in in height, though somewhat stoutly and compaotly built.