Oldest Woman Living.

Manawatu Herald, 27 November 1897, Page 3

Oldest Woman Living.

• — " I saw the other day," writes a correspondent, " at Miltown Malbay, Mrs. Anne Armstrong, who is pro bably the very oldest woman in exis tence. Mrs. Armstrong was born in the year 1781. She is not a native of the coan'y of Clare, but came with her husband, who was in the Constabulary, from Fermanagh. She is known to lived in the neighbourhood of Miltown Matbay for upwards of 90 years, and the gentleman who accompanied me to see her stated that she told him she was present at his mother's mairiage, which took place 46 years ago, and was celebrated on her (Mrs Armstrong's) 70th birthday. She lives in a little thatched cottage at a place called Spanish Point, outside Miltown Malbay, entirely alone, and generally retires to re9t locking her door, at 4 p.m. The neighbours cook her meals, and Bhow her every kindness. Mrs. Armstrong is slightly built, but lithe and wiry in frame, and even still erect of carriage. She has large clear blue eyes, and her sight is unimpaired. She is slightly deaf, but her memory is very clear. A near relative of mine, early in the present century, between 1817 and 1820, hai a villa at Spanish Point. When I mentioned the name to Mrs. Armstrong, she instantly remembered it, and was able to point out to me the villa in which my relative lived 77 years ago. When I spoke to her of tbe Rebellion of 1798, her face immediately assumed a pained expression, as the scenes of the period were instantly recalled to her recollection. She was dressed with great neatness, and wore a cap of snowy whiteness. Her features were extremely pallid, but the firmness of her gait in walking and her strong grasp in shaking hands indicated very clearly her vitality.