LONGEVITY RECORDS.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 5200, 7 November 1927, Page 4

LONGEVITY RECORDS.

BECAME FATHER AT 92. TWO LIVES COVER 274 YEARS. A London paper says that 274 years have be,en covered by twc consecutive lives—and this on two occasions. The (ii-st—that of' Thomas and Robert Pari - —embraced the lives of 16 rulers —Edward V., Richard HI., Henry VII., Henry VIII., Edward VI., Mary L, Elizabeth, James 1., Charles 1., Cromwell, Charles IL, James IL, William and Mary, Anne, Georgq 1., and G e orge 11. Robert Parr was the grandson of Thomas Parr, and was born in 1483 and lived 152 years. He was, buried in Westminster Abbey on November 15, 1635. Robert Pair was born in 1533, and lived 124 years, dying on 1757.’ The second instance in which two consecutive livesi covered 274 years is recorded in Chambers’ “Book of Days,” 1885, as follows:— “Peter Garden died at Auchterless in 1775, aged 131. Wheji a youth he had accompanied his master to London, and there saw Henry Jenkins, who died in 1670, at the extraordinary age of 169. Jenkins, as a boy, had carried a horseload of arrows to Northaileron, to be employed by the English Army in resisting the invasion of James IV. of Scotland, and which were in reality soon after used at the battle of Flodden (1513). Here two lives embraced events extending over 262 years.” As Henry Jenkins was born in 1.501 the two lives covered 274 years. Nor is it a. record for ono to become a father at 86. The Edinburgh Courant of May 3, 1766, Ihas this noticfc: “The; lady of Sir William Nicholson of Glenbervy, was safely delivered of a daughter. What is velry singular, Sir William is at present 92 years of age, and has a daughter alive of his first marriage aged 66. He married liis present wife when he was 82, bv whom Iho now lias six children.”

Many investigators have pointed out that the married state is a. factor tending to longevity. Thomas Parr did not marry till he was 80. His wife, died when he was 112, and he marriexl again at 120. A Norwegian lived to be 146. The investigator of his case adds a note of disappointment: “He was married when Hl years old, and as a widower of 130 proposed to marry again, although without success.” Whether oft-mar-ried people live longer than the average may be, gauged from the following extracts from the “Book of Days?’:—

“ There is an account of a gentleman whu had been married to fourwives and lived to be 115 years old.

In the next instance one is left to calculate the. age: “A gentleman who died at Bordeaux in 1772 had been married 16 times.” Two very long-lived people! were each married five times. The death of a soldier is recorded in 1784 who had five wives, and his widow, aged 90, wept over the grave of her fourth husband.” The writer who mentioned these facts naively adds: “ The said soldier was much attached to the married state.”