100 Not Out: Famous Centenarians

New Zealand Listener, Volume 2, Issue 40, 29 March 1940, Page 34

100 Not Out: Famous Centenarians

( We print here portions from a talk recently given by "Ebor" in the 2YA Children’s Hour)

} | EN and women who have lived to be one hundred and over have often had full possession of all their faculties, by which we mean they sometimes could read without spectacles, they could listen to and thoroughly enjoy music and conversation, and, as often as not, they were more alert than their children who perheps had celebrated their golden weddings. In the case of Mrs. eres who died on October 31, 1901, aged 108 years and 144 days, this lovely old Quakeress did actually

live to be present at the golden wedding of her son, Cornelius Hanbury. She was a great philanthropist and, as a younger woman, she visited the prisons with Mrs. Elizabeth Fry, who, as you may know, did so much to bring about better conditions in the prisons of England. Mrs. Hanbury also did great work towards freeing the slaves in the British Empire and elsewhere. "Modern Methuselah " One of the oldest, if not the oldest, men who ever lived in England was Henry Jenkins, "the modern Methuselah," who has the

— most fascinating personal history. Old Henry was born in the year 1501 and died in 1670, which made him 169 years old. His birthplace was Ellerton-upon-Swale, a small | village in the North Riding of) Yorkshire. The proofs on which the great age of Jenkins rest have been examined and sifted with the greatest care, in order, if possible, to detect the least mistake, but the fact seems to be proved. I like that story they tell of old George Stephenson, of Romaldkirk (not the George Stephenson of "Rocket" engine fame, but the one who lived to be 105). He was a farm labourer most of his life, and, of course, was an early riser, up to within a few months of his death. He often used to scold his daughter and her husband, who were both over seventy years old, for lying in bed in the morning. Although they generally were up before six o’clock he used to ask them if they did not work when young, what would they do when. they were old? Old George had his wits about him and had a very good memory, and used to like to tell all about the things that happened to him in King George the Third’s days, although he lived his last eighteen years in Queen Victoria’s reign.

Long Widowhood ... I would like to mention an inscription in Camberwell Church which relates to Agnes Skuner, who died in 1499, at the age of 119. Mrs. Skuner survived her husband Richard Skuner by 92 years — a pretty long widowship for any old lady, don’t you think? Dr. Plot . .. gives many instances of centenarians of his time, and of persons who went a few years beyond the hundred mark. He tells of old Mary Cooper of King’s Bromley in his county, who lived to see the sixth generation. Mary Cooper could say what a famous noble European matron said to her daughter: " Daughter, bid thy daughter tell her daughter that her daughter’s daughter cries."