A SINGULAR FAMILY.

Thames Star, Volume XV, Issue 4856, 2 August 1884, Page 4

A SINGULAR FAMILY.

■;p.r In tlie reigff ii£ King William 111 there ; lived Ipswich,-r*in Srißplk, a family r which,, from thedumber peculiarities ( belonging to it*' was distinguished by the name of Odd Family. Every event, < remarkably good or bad; happenedi to this family in an odd year, or an odd day of ;the^iuonth— and every one of them had something odd in his or her person, manner, and behaviour. The very letters of their Christian names always happened to be an odd nnmber. The husband's "name was Peter, and his wife was Rahab j they had seven children all boys—viz., •" A Solomon; Roger, James, Matthew, Jonas, ■■■.'-I)ayid, and Ezekiel. Jlhe husband had bat one leg, and his wife but one arm. ;| Solomon watt born with only three fingers , on his right hand. Jonas had ja stump ;foot,: and David; was humpbacked; all tbese except David were remarkably short, ;S and -^Ezekiel was six feet two inches high the age of nineteen. The stump-footed B ■J^ioas an & the hu mpba ok David got wives {lojP^ fortivnej but no girl would listen to the of the rest. The husband's hair was as black as jet, and the wife's as | remarkably white, yet eyery onei of ihe children, were red haired. The husband had the peculiar misfortune of falling into s a. deepfsawpit'where he was starved to : ; deathjin;the year 1701, and the wife refusing all kinds of sustenance, died in five , i^days after him./ In the year 1701 Ezekiel ehliated as a grenadier, and although he t was afterwards wounded in twenty-three; places, he;. recovered. Roger, Jame»j Matthew, Jonas, and Day id died at differ* ;ent"places bri^the same day in«theyear JL7I3. And Solomon and Ezekiel were drowned together in crossing the Thanes Tvin;;thef;y«af:l723^;i:/-;^,y,l^:.r; ■ ■./■ - ■;■: , ' ■■.