A SINGULAR FAMILY.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 3504, 28 June 1884, Page 2

A SINGULAR FAMILY.

In the reign of King William the Third there lived at Ipswich, in Suffolk, a family which, from the number of •• peculiarities belonging to it, was distinguished by the name of Odd Family. Every event, remarkably good or bad, happened to this family in an odd year,, or an odd day of the month, and every , one of them had something odd in bis. or her person, manner, or behavior. The very letters in their Christian names always happened to be of an odd number. The husband’s name was Peter, and his wife’s Bahab ; they had seven children, all boys—viz.,'Solomon, Boger, James,' Matthew, Jonas, David, and Ezekiel. The husband had but one leg and his wife but one arm. Solomon was born with only three fingers on his right hand. Jonas had a stump foot, and David was humpbacked; all these except David were remarkably short and Ezekial was six feet two inches high at the age of nineteen. The stumpfooted Jonas and the hump-backed, David got wives of fortune, but no girl would listen to the addresses of the rest. The husband’s hair was as black as jet, and the wife’s was as remarkably white yet every one of the children were red haired. The husband had the peculiar misfortune of falling into a deep sawpit, where he was starved to death in the year 1701, and the wife refusing all kinds of sustenance, died five days after him. In the year 1701 Ezekiel enlisted as a grenadier, and although he was afterwards wounded in twenty-three places, he recovered. Roger, James, Matthew, Jonas, and David died at different places on the same day in the year 1713. And Solomon and Ezekiel were drowned together in crossing the Thames in the year 1723.