Lancaster Gazette, 24 Jan 1818, page 3
A melancholy accident happened lately at Lorton, near Cockermouth. A son of Mr. Jonathan Musgrave (about fourteen years of age), endeavouring to recover a foot-ball, which one of his playfellows had tost into the Whitbeck, he fell into the rivulet, which was much swoln at the time by the heavy rains, and was unfortunately drowned. The accident happened on the Thursday, and the body was not discovered till the Saturday following.
Tuesday, June 18, 2013
George Wade, Dunmow, Essex, England, 1818
Lancaster Gazette, 24 Jan 1818, page 3
BIRTHS.
On the 23d ult, at Dunmow, in Essex, (a place well known by thousands who have never seen it) the Lady of George Wade, Esq., of her sisteenth child, of whom fifteen are living. It is remarkable, that the brother of the above-named gentleman, (John Wade, of Injebreck, Esq. in the Isle of Man) has nine children living. Their joint issue is twenty-four; and it so happens that the number of boys and girls is equal -- making twelve couple of cousins!
BIRTHS.
On the 23d ult, at Dunmow, in Essex, (a place well known by thousands who have never seen it) the Lady of George Wade, Esq., of her sisteenth child, of whom fifteen are living. It is remarkable, that the brother of the above-named gentleman, (John Wade, of Injebreck, Esq. in the Isle of Man) has nine children living. Their joint issue is twenty-four; and it so happens that the number of boys and girls is equal -- making twelve couple of cousins!
William Holgate, Settle, Lancashire, England, 1810
[According to this obit, his birth and death days were the same: May 30.]
Lancaster Gazette, Saturday, 09 Jun 1810, page 3.
On Wednesday se'nnight, William Holgate, the son of Mr. Wm. Holgate, of Settle, aged 20. This amiable young man had been long afflicted with an agonizing disease, which he bore with truly Christian fortitude. During the latter part of it, he seemed to be fully impressed with a presentiment of his approaching end, and while life was gradually wearing away, attempted to console his weeping friends with assurances that death was stripped of its terrors to him. On the last day, nearly at the last hour of his life, his expression to an esteemed friend was, "This is my birth-day, and this evening will be my close." Not long after, he reclined his head, and expired without a groan. His remains were embalmed by the tears of all who knew him. His memory will ever live in the minds of those who were acquainted with his endearing virtues.
Lancaster Gazette, Saturday, 09 Jun 1810, page 3.
On Wednesday se'nnight, William Holgate, the son of Mr. Wm. Holgate, of Settle, aged 20. This amiable young man had been long afflicted with an agonizing disease, which he bore with truly Christian fortitude. During the latter part of it, he seemed to be fully impressed with a presentiment of his approaching end, and while life was gradually wearing away, attempted to console his weeping friends with assurances that death was stripped of its terrors to him. On the last day, nearly at the last hour of his life, his expression to an esteemed friend was, "This is my birth-day, and this evening will be my close." Not long after, he reclined his head, and expired without a groan. His remains were embalmed by the tears of all who knew him. His memory will ever live in the minds of those who were acquainted with his endearing virtues.
Sunday, June 16, 2013
Samuel Booth (Faith Hope Charity), 1812, Lancashire, England
Lancaster Gazette, Saturday, 25 Apr 1812, page 3
BIRTH
On the 8th inst., at Hollinwood, Peggy, the wife of Samuel Booth, a poor weaver, was delivered of three fine children, all girls, and likely to do well; they have called them Faith, Hope, and Charity. Scarcely fifteen months have elapsed since she was brought to bed of twins.
+++++++
IGI Burial Records for St. Michael, Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire, shows that the babies died shortly after or before this article:
Hope & Charity were buried on 26 Apr 1812.
Faith was buried on 21 Apr 1812.
The twins mentioned above appear to be (from St. Michael records):
Mary, born on 18 Nov 1810, Christened on 02 Dec 1810, and buried on 27 Feb 1811.
Betty, born on 19 Nov 1810, Christened 02 Dec 1810 (no death recorded yet in online transcriptions).
BIRTH
On the 8th inst., at Hollinwood, Peggy, the wife of Samuel Booth, a poor weaver, was delivered of three fine children, all girls, and likely to do well; they have called them Faith, Hope, and Charity. Scarcely fifteen months have elapsed since she was brought to bed of twins.
+++++++
IGI Burial Records for St. Michael, Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire, shows that the babies died shortly after or before this article:
Hope & Charity were buried on 26 Apr 1812.
Faith was buried on 21 Apr 1812.
The twins mentioned above appear to be (from St. Michael records):
Mary, born on 18 Nov 1810, Christened on 02 Dec 1810, and buried on 27 Feb 1811.
Betty, born on 19 Nov 1810, Christened 02 Dec 1810 (no death recorded yet in online transcriptions).
Elizabeth Bullard Winfrey, Gainsborough, England, 1804
Lancaster Gazette, Saturday, 01 Dec 1804, page 3
DEATHS
Lately, at Gainsborough, Elizabeth Bullard, alias Winfrey, widow, at the extraordinary age of 107 years. She remembered his Majesty King George the First coming to England, could see without spectacles, and died without pain or sickness, being literally exhausted and worn out.
DEATHS
Lately, at Gainsborough, Elizabeth Bullard, alias Winfrey, widow, at the extraordinary age of 107 years. She remembered his Majesty King George the First coming to England, could see without spectacles, and died without pain or sickness, being literally exhausted and worn out.
Dennis Coorobee, Ballindangin, Athenry, Ireland, 1804
Lately, at Groves*, near Athenry, Ireland, of a short illness, Mr. Dennis Coorobee, of Ballindangin, aged 117, a truly honest man. he retained his faculties to the last, and until two days previous to his death, he never remembered to have any complaint or sickness whatever, (tooth-ache only excepted). Three weeks before his death, he walked from his house to Galway, and back the same day, which is 26 miles. He could, to the last, read the smallest print without the assistance of glasses, which he never accustomed himself to, with as much ease as a boy of 16. It has been acknowledge by the most intelligent men in that kingdom, that, for the present age, he was the most experienced farmer, and the brightest genius for the improvement of agriculture: it is upwards of 70 years since he propagated that most useful article to the human species, called the black potatoe. He was married seven times, and when married the last, was 98* years old -- by them all he had 48 children, 236 grand children, 944 great grand children, and 25 great great grand children, the oldest of whom is four years old -- and his own youngest son (by his last wife) is about 18 years old.
*Ink blobs on original newspaper made this difficult to read.
Lancaster Gazette, Saturday, 01 Dec 1804, page 3
*Ink blobs on original newspaper made this difficult to read.
Lancaster Gazette, Saturday, 01 Dec 1804, page 3
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
Mary Alice Stubbs Thompson, Downall Green, Wigan, Lancashire, England, 1870
DEATHS
Downall Green, near Wigan. -- On the 3rd inst., at Highfield, Mary Alice, the beloved wife of Mr. Thomas Crompton, and youngest daughter of Mr. William Stubbs, late of Caton, aged 32 years. Deeply regretted.
Lancaster Gazette, Saturday, 12 Mar 1870, page 5
Downall Green, near Wigan. -- On the 3rd inst., at Highfield, Mary Alice, the beloved wife of Mr. Thomas Crompton, and youngest daughter of Mr. William Stubbs, late of Caton, aged 32 years. Deeply regretted.
Lancaster Gazette, Saturday, 12 Mar 1870, page 5
William Stubbs, Caton, Lancaster, Lancashire, England, 1871
DEATHS
Thornber, near High Bentham. -- On the 9th inst., Mr. William Stubbs, formerly of Caton, aged 74 years. Much respected.
Lancaster Gazette, Saturday, 15 Apr 1871, page 5
Thornber, near High Bentham. -- On the 9th inst., Mr. William Stubbs, formerly of Caton, aged 74 years. Much respected.
Lancaster Gazette, Saturday, 15 Apr 1871, page 5
Sunday, June 9, 2013
Marion Woodrow, Carlisle, England, New York, 1836
DEATHS
On Tuesday, the 23d ult., at New York, Mrs. Marion Woodrow, wife of the Rev. Thomas Woodrow, late of Carlisle, England. Mr. Woodrow arrived in this city but a few weeks since with his family, consisting of his lady, her sister, and seven young children. Hearing of a vacant church, in Dutchness City, Mr. W. repaired thither three weeks ago, leaving his wife and family well. She was taken ill soon after his departure, and died suddenly in a land of strangers, on the night above mentioned, surrounded only by her sister and children. The affectionate husband was only apprized of his bereavement when he entered the house on his return -- just in season to attend her remains to the house for all living. -- New York Paper
Westmorland Gazette, Saturday, 26 March 1836, page 3
On Tuesday, the 23d ult., at New York, Mrs. Marion Woodrow, wife of the Rev. Thomas Woodrow, late of Carlisle, England. Mr. Woodrow arrived in this city but a few weeks since with his family, consisting of his lady, her sister, and seven young children. Hearing of a vacant church, in Dutchness City, Mr. W. repaired thither three weeks ago, leaving his wife and family well. She was taken ill soon after his departure, and died suddenly in a land of strangers, on the night above mentioned, surrounded only by her sister and children. The affectionate husband was only apprized of his bereavement when he entered the house on his return -- just in season to attend her remains to the house for all living. -- New York Paper
Westmorland Gazette, Saturday, 26 March 1836, page 3
1836 deaths: reporting many deaths of British folks aged 90+ years!
DEATHS
At Creech Range, near Wareham, Mr. Abbott, aged 100 years.
On Tuesday, the 8th inst., at Anderson's buildings, South Shields, aged 105, Mrs. Mary Mackey. She retained her faculties to the last.
On Wednesday, the 9th inst., aged 107, Mrs. Elizabeth Pawley, of Braunston-gate, Leicester. She was a native of Warwickshire, and had been a widow about seventeen years. She retained her faculties to the last in wonderful degree, and appeared to suffer comparatively little from the effects of her almost patriarchal age. Her sister died short time ago, between the age of 90 and 100 years.
On Friday, the 19th ult., at Frome, Thomas Golledge, aged 89. A brother who survives him is at present 91 years of age, his wife 86, and a sister the same age.
At Hawkchurch, aged 103, Mr. J. Moly. His memory was most tenaciouis, and he was fond of adverting to his having been in London at the time of the rebellion in 1745, and seen the trained bands reviewed by George II, and the troops marched out of the metropolis with the Duke of Cumberland.
Westmorland Gazette, Saturday, 26 March 1836, page 3
At Creech Range, near Wareham, Mr. Abbott, aged 100 years.
On Tuesday, the 8th inst., at Anderson's buildings, South Shields, aged 105, Mrs. Mary Mackey. She retained her faculties to the last.
On Wednesday, the 9th inst., aged 107, Mrs. Elizabeth Pawley, of Braunston-gate, Leicester. She was a native of Warwickshire, and had been a widow about seventeen years. She retained her faculties to the last in wonderful degree, and appeared to suffer comparatively little from the effects of her almost patriarchal age. Her sister died short time ago, between the age of 90 and 100 years.
On Friday, the 19th ult., at Frome, Thomas Golledge, aged 89. A brother who survives him is at present 91 years of age, his wife 86, and a sister the same age.
At Hawkchurch, aged 103, Mr. J. Moly. His memory was most tenaciouis, and he was fond of adverting to his having been in London at the time of the rebellion in 1745, and seen the trained bands reviewed by George II, and the troops marched out of the metropolis with the Duke of Cumberland.
Westmorland Gazette, Saturday, 26 March 1836, page 3
Saturday, June 8, 2013
Langdale Atkinson, Burton, Westmorland, 1863
DEATHS
On the 1st September last, by the capsizing of a boat while crossing the Bar off Lagos, West Coast of Africa, in his 22nd year, Lieut. Langdale Atkinson, R.N., of H.M.S. Rattlesnake, youngest son of the late William Waltham Atkinson, of Burton House, Burton, Westmorland, Esq.
Kendal Mercury, 17 Oct 1863, page 5
On the 1st September last, by the capsizing of a boat while crossing the Bar off Lagos, West Coast of Africa, in his 22nd year, Lieut. Langdale Atkinson, R.N., of H.M.S. Rattlesnake, youngest son of the late William Waltham Atkinson, of Burton House, Burton, Westmorland, Esq.
Kendal Mercury, 17 Oct 1863, page 5
Friday, June 7, 2013
Sunstroke, James Woodman, Heston, Lancashire, England, 1873
DEATH FROM SUNSTROKE AT HEATON
During the intense heat of Tuesday, a stonemason, at Heaton, named James Woodman, was struck down by sunstroke whilst working in a hay field at Heston, about four o'clock in the afternoon, and died from the effects about four hours afterwards. He had been at work from seven o'clock in the mornng until four o'clock in the afternoon, when he suddenly left off his work, whilst loading the cart, saying he was so weak he could do no more. He then walked away about a hundred yards, when he fell down, and never afterwards spoke. The following was the evidence adduced at the inquest, which was held before Mr. Holden, at Heaton, Thursday:
James Lamb, of Heaton, farm labourer, said: Deceased was a farm labourer with Thomas Taylor, and on Tuesday last we were working together in the hay field. We were alone, and about four o'clock in the afternoon I noticed something was the matter with him. We were loading the cart, and he said he was so weak he could do no more. He then walked away from me with the fork in his hand; and when he had got about a hundred yards I saw him fall on his back. he never spoke again. I came home for help, and did not go back because another cart was going with other men to the field. I went for the doctor. We had been working in the hay field together from seven o'clock in the morning. He had only a soft cloth cap on all day. He never complained of any pain until he had told me he could work no more.
James Metcalfe, of Heaton, farm labourer, said: I was in the same field with deceased part of the day on Tuesday. When Lamb came to say he was ill I went with the horse and cart to the field. I found him lying on his back, and when I asked him if he was "badly" he took not the slightest notice of me. His eyes were closed, and he was unable to speak. His breathing was heavy. We got him into the cart and brought him home. I went over to Overton for his brother, and did not see him again alive.
George Taylor, of Heaton, farmer, said: I was at work with the deceased nearly all the day on Tuesday. He never complained of anything, but said he was better than he had been. I was with him when he died, about eight o'clock. He never spoke after he came into the house.
John Woodman, of Overton, mason, said: Deceased was my brother. He was 54 years of age and a stonemason by trade. I saw him on Saturday, and he was then quite well. I have never known him to ail anything.
The jury returned a verdict that "Deceased had died suddenly from sunstroke."
Lancaster Gazette, Saturday, 26 Jul 1873, page 5
During the intense heat of Tuesday, a stonemason, at Heaton, named James Woodman, was struck down by sunstroke whilst working in a hay field at Heston, about four o'clock in the afternoon, and died from the effects about four hours afterwards. He had been at work from seven o'clock in the mornng until four o'clock in the afternoon, when he suddenly left off his work, whilst loading the cart, saying he was so weak he could do no more. He then walked away about a hundred yards, when he fell down, and never afterwards spoke. The following was the evidence adduced at the inquest, which was held before Mr. Holden, at Heaton, Thursday:
James Lamb, of Heaton, farm labourer, said: Deceased was a farm labourer with Thomas Taylor, and on Tuesday last we were working together in the hay field. We were alone, and about four o'clock in the afternoon I noticed something was the matter with him. We were loading the cart, and he said he was so weak he could do no more. He then walked away from me with the fork in his hand; and when he had got about a hundred yards I saw him fall on his back. he never spoke again. I came home for help, and did not go back because another cart was going with other men to the field. I went for the doctor. We had been working in the hay field together from seven o'clock in the morning. He had only a soft cloth cap on all day. He never complained of any pain until he had told me he could work no more.
James Metcalfe, of Heaton, farm labourer, said: I was in the same field with deceased part of the day on Tuesday. When Lamb came to say he was ill I went with the horse and cart to the field. I found him lying on his back, and when I asked him if he was "badly" he took not the slightest notice of me. His eyes were closed, and he was unable to speak. His breathing was heavy. We got him into the cart and brought him home. I went over to Overton for his brother, and did not see him again alive.
George Taylor, of Heaton, farmer, said: I was at work with the deceased nearly all the day on Tuesday. He never complained of anything, but said he was better than he had been. I was with him when he died, about eight o'clock. He never spoke after he came into the house.
John Woodman, of Overton, mason, said: Deceased was my brother. He was 54 years of age and a stonemason by trade. I saw him on Saturday, and he was then quite well. I have never known him to ail anything.
The jury returned a verdict that "Deceased had died suddenly from sunstroke."
Lancaster Gazette, Saturday, 26 Jul 1873, page 5
1873 Heatwave Description (see entries about Sunstroke)
THE WEATHER. EXTRAORDINARY VISITATION.
The present week has been one of meteorological phenomena rarely exampled in these temperate latitudes. Heat of remarkable fierceness made itself felt on Monday, the mercury rising to some degrees above 100 in the sun. For the purpose of hay harvest nothing could be more opportune, and all around Lancaster was a scene of busy hay-making, fortunately unaccompanied by the perils that awaited field operations the day after. Tuesday was the hottest day perhaps ever remembered here. An unclouded sun shot down its burning rays with intensity proper to our Indian climate, but altogether unexampled in these parts, rendering out-of-door labour an affair of absolute danger, as may be seen by the various items of intelligence to be found in our local columns, relating the many deaths from sun-stroke in the hay field. The oppressive heat continued until about four o'clock in the afternoon, when some friendly, but (as it afterwards proved) ominous, cloud came up from the west, and interposed a grateful shade for all. These clouds gradually increased their area, and by seven o'clock the whole south and south-western horizon loomed portentiously. A thunder-storm was evidently near, and very soon the familiar distant growl made itself heard. Lightning flashed at intervals, which gradually became shorter and shorter, till the electric display became all but incessant. The thunder was also barely intermittent, but it was never very near; so that the wondrous electric phenomena witnessed on this memorable occasion could be contemplated without fear of serious consequences. A glorious sight it truly was, but one that admits of no verbal description. The best evidence of its extraordinary character was to be had in the next morning's expressions of wonder and admiration to be heard on all sides in the course of ordinary conversation. The simple truth is that from about seven o'clock till ten, the long evening of a summer day was kept ablaze by incessant lightning flashes, some forked, some of the other kind, and occasionally both kinds intermingling, and when night at last closed in there was no darkness, all space being filled with the glory of this most remarkable visitation. It was near midnight ere the last of the retiring storm was seen in faint flashes "few and far between". Very little rain fell.
The present week has been one of meteorological phenomena rarely exampled in these temperate latitudes. Heat of remarkable fierceness made itself felt on Monday, the mercury rising to some degrees above 100 in the sun. For the purpose of hay harvest nothing could be more opportune, and all around Lancaster was a scene of busy hay-making, fortunately unaccompanied by the perils that awaited field operations the day after. Tuesday was the hottest day perhaps ever remembered here. An unclouded sun shot down its burning rays with intensity proper to our Indian climate, but altogether unexampled in these parts, rendering out-of-door labour an affair of absolute danger, as may be seen by the various items of intelligence to be found in our local columns, relating the many deaths from sun-stroke in the hay field. The oppressive heat continued until about four o'clock in the afternoon, when some friendly, but (as it afterwards proved) ominous, cloud came up from the west, and interposed a grateful shade for all. These clouds gradually increased their area, and by seven o'clock the whole south and south-western horizon loomed portentiously. A thunder-storm was evidently near, and very soon the familiar distant growl made itself heard. Lightning flashed at intervals, which gradually became shorter and shorter, till the electric display became all but incessant. The thunder was also barely intermittent, but it was never very near; so that the wondrous electric phenomena witnessed on this memorable occasion could be contemplated without fear of serious consequences. A glorious sight it truly was, but one that admits of no verbal description. The best evidence of its extraordinary character was to be had in the next morning's expressions of wonder and admiration to be heard on all sides in the course of ordinary conversation. The simple truth is that from about seven o'clock till ten, the long evening of a summer day was kept ablaze by incessant lightning flashes, some forked, some of the other kind, and occasionally both kinds intermingling, and when night at last closed in there was no darkness, all space being filled with the glory of this most remarkable visitation. It was near midnight ere the last of the retiring storm was seen in faint flashes "few and far between". Very little rain fell.
Sunstroke Strikes Again
DEATH FROM SUNSTROKE. A young woman, named Mary Marsh, was on Monday looking at a length procession of the Free Gardeners' Friendly Society, when she fell dead from sunstroke. About the time of the occurrence the thermometer showed 108 deg. in the sun.
Dundee Courier, Friday, 25 Jul 1873, page 3
Dundee Courier, Friday, 25 Jul 1873, page 3
DEATHS FROM SUNSTROKE
DEATHS FROM SUNSTROKE.
SPOFFORTH. At Spofforth, an old man named W illiam Bulmer, about 70 years of age, residing at Sicklinghall, a shoemaker by trade, was reduced tosuch a depth of poverty that he had tasted nothing for three days. He got work in a hayfield between Spofforth and Wetherby, belonging to Mr. Bewes, on Tuesday. When the other men went to dinner, he, feeling unwell, said he would remain in the field until they came back and brought his dinner. On their return it was found that the old man was dead, it is supposed from sunstroke. His body turned quite black.
MALTON. Three cases of sunstroke are reported from this district. On Tuesday as George Bridgeman was driving a mowing machine on the farm of Mr. Coulson, on Langton Wold, he suddenly fell from his seat. Mr. W.T. Colby, surgeon, of Malton, was quickly sent for, but on Wednesday the man still laid almost insensible and motionless. The two other cases occurred on Tuesday afternoon, both in the hafield in Ryedale. It is rumoured that one of the men is dead. The highest temperature in the shade has been: Sunday 85 deg., Monday 85 deg., Tuesday 90 deg. (at Slater's, Malton, 92 deg.), and Wednesday 84 deg.
MIDDLESBRO'. On Tuesday afternoon, a fatal case of sunstroke occurred at the Clarence Ironworks, owned by Messrs. Bell Brothers, at Port Clarence, near Middlesbro'. A man named Michael Downey was pursuing his usual occupation of filling ironstone from a keel upon the river Tees, when he fell down insensible, and was carried to his home. Medical attendance was procured, but the poor fellow remained insensible, and died in the course of the evening.
SKIPTON. Tuesday was one of the hottest days ever known in this district. The coroner had five deaths on his list from sunstroke.
SEDBERGH. On Tuesday morning, a labouring man named L. Greenbank engaged in a hayfield on the farm of Mr. C. Gosling, Dent, was smitten by sunstroke, and became unconscious immediately. Dr. Swain, of Sedbergh, was summoned at once, but arrived too late to be of any use; the poor fellow died almost directly he arrived--about three p.m. The unfortunate man was forty-one years of age, and leaves a mother who was dependent on him for support. On the same afternoon, a man named F. Veitch, belonging to Penrith, but engaged with Mr. Capstick, near Sedbergh, was struck, and, though not killed, Dr. Inman, who was called in, pronounced him in such great danger that his wife was summoned by wire.
WENSLEYDALE. In this neighbourhood the recent hot weather has caused no less than eight deaths. At Caldbergh, two miles from Middleham, two men were making pikes in a field, when one of them fell down in a fit, and in twenty minutes afterwards was a corpse. His name was William Stubbs, aged about forty years. In the same neighbourhood the wife of Francis Yeoman was taken from a field in which she was working in a helpless condition, and is not expected to recover. At Swineside, a servant girl, daughter of Mr. Milner, the schoolmaster at Horsehouse, whilst in the hay field was taken suddenly ill and died during the night. A man named Anthony Weighill, in the service of Mr. Charles Blenkinsop, farmer, constable Barten (Burton?), was mowing, and shortly after partaking of a pint of beer suddenly became ill and died, whilst another servant swooned. At Hawes a man from the west country died from sunstroke; at Gale a woman named Mary Metcalfe fell a victim to the same affliction; two men, one named Metcalfe or Blundell, in the employ of Mr. Hall, farmer, Marsett, and the other named Thomas Atkinson, in that of Mr. Scarr, farmer, Holmes, Askrigg, have met death under similar circumstances; and a navvy is also reported to have been overpowered by the sun, and died on the road in the neighbourhood of Hawes.
WETHERBY. The men and women engaged in haymaking at Wetherby House have suffered greatly from the effects of the heat, and many were obliged to leave and go home to bed. Mr. Geo. Precious, publican of Wetherby, who was overlooking the cutting of his hay, was overpowered, and is still in bed from the shock.
Further deaths from sunstroke are reported from Blackburn, Stalybridge, Liverpool, Shrewsbury, Fifeshire, &c.
York Herald, Saturday, 26 Jul 1873, page 7
SPOFFORTH. At Spofforth, an old man named W illiam Bulmer, about 70 years of age, residing at Sicklinghall, a shoemaker by trade, was reduced tosuch a depth of poverty that he had tasted nothing for three days. He got work in a hayfield between Spofforth and Wetherby, belonging to Mr. Bewes, on Tuesday. When the other men went to dinner, he, feeling unwell, said he would remain in the field until they came back and brought his dinner. On their return it was found that the old man was dead, it is supposed from sunstroke. His body turned quite black.
MALTON. Three cases of sunstroke are reported from this district. On Tuesday as George Bridgeman was driving a mowing machine on the farm of Mr. Coulson, on Langton Wold, he suddenly fell from his seat. Mr. W.T. Colby, surgeon, of Malton, was quickly sent for, but on Wednesday the man still laid almost insensible and motionless. The two other cases occurred on Tuesday afternoon, both in the hafield in Ryedale. It is rumoured that one of the men is dead. The highest temperature in the shade has been: Sunday 85 deg., Monday 85 deg., Tuesday 90 deg. (at Slater's, Malton, 92 deg.), and Wednesday 84 deg.
MIDDLESBRO'. On Tuesday afternoon, a fatal case of sunstroke occurred at the Clarence Ironworks, owned by Messrs. Bell Brothers, at Port Clarence, near Middlesbro'. A man named Michael Downey was pursuing his usual occupation of filling ironstone from a keel upon the river Tees, when he fell down insensible, and was carried to his home. Medical attendance was procured, but the poor fellow remained insensible, and died in the course of the evening.
SKIPTON. Tuesday was one of the hottest days ever known in this district. The coroner had five deaths on his list from sunstroke.
SEDBERGH. On Tuesday morning, a labouring man named L. Greenbank engaged in a hayfield on the farm of Mr. C. Gosling, Dent, was smitten by sunstroke, and became unconscious immediately. Dr. Swain, of Sedbergh, was summoned at once, but arrived too late to be of any use; the poor fellow died almost directly he arrived--about three p.m. The unfortunate man was forty-one years of age, and leaves a mother who was dependent on him for support. On the same afternoon, a man named F. Veitch, belonging to Penrith, but engaged with Mr. Capstick, near Sedbergh, was struck, and, though not killed, Dr. Inman, who was called in, pronounced him in such great danger that his wife was summoned by wire.
WENSLEYDALE. In this neighbourhood the recent hot weather has caused no less than eight deaths. At Caldbergh, two miles from Middleham, two men were making pikes in a field, when one of them fell down in a fit, and in twenty minutes afterwards was a corpse. His name was William Stubbs, aged about forty years. In the same neighbourhood the wife of Francis Yeoman was taken from a field in which she was working in a helpless condition, and is not expected to recover. At Swineside, a servant girl, daughter of Mr. Milner, the schoolmaster at Horsehouse, whilst in the hay field was taken suddenly ill and died during the night. A man named Anthony Weighill, in the service of Mr. Charles Blenkinsop, farmer, constable Barten (Burton?), was mowing, and shortly after partaking of a pint of beer suddenly became ill and died, whilst another servant swooned. At Hawes a man from the west country died from sunstroke; at Gale a woman named Mary Metcalfe fell a victim to the same affliction; two men, one named Metcalfe or Blundell, in the employ of Mr. Hall, farmer, Marsett, and the other named Thomas Atkinson, in that of Mr. Scarr, farmer, Holmes, Askrigg, have met death under similar circumstances; and a navvy is also reported to have been overpowered by the sun, and died on the road in the neighbourhood of Hawes.
WETHERBY. The men and women engaged in haymaking at Wetherby House have suffered greatly from the effects of the heat, and many were obliged to leave and go home to bed. Mr. Geo. Precious, publican of Wetherby, who was overlooking the cutting of his hay, was overpowered, and is still in bed from the shock.
Further deaths from sunstroke are reported from Blackburn, Stalybridge, Liverpool, Shrewsbury, Fifeshire, &c.
York Herald, Saturday, 26 Jul 1873, page 7
William Bradshaw, Lunt's Heath, Widnes, Cheshire, 1840
BIRTHS
On Tuesday last, as Dr. Kidd, of Farnworth, was passing over Lunt's Heath, in Widnes, he was called into a cottage to see Mrs Wm. Bradshaw, a midwifery patient. She had been at work in the factory of Thomas Kidd, Esqu., at three o'clock, and at six she was delivered of three fine male children, all alive and hearty. The mother is doing well, and the trio have been baptized William, Samuel and John.
York Herald, Saturday, 22 Feb 1840, page 3
On Tuesday last, as Dr. Kidd, of Farnworth, was passing over Lunt's Heath, in Widnes, he was called into a cottage to see Mrs Wm. Bradshaw, a midwifery patient. She had been at work in the factory of Thomas Kidd, Esqu., at three o'clock, and at six she was delivered of three fine male children, all alive and hearty. The mother is doing well, and the trio have been baptized William, Samuel and John.
York Herald, Saturday, 22 Feb 1840, page 3
Thursday, June 6, 2013
Mary Dent, Bleatarn, Westmorland, England, 1844
On Wednesday last, an inquisition was held at Bleatarn, Wesmtorland, on the body of Mary Dent, wife of Mr. John Dent, of that place, aged 68 years. The deceased on the evening previous to the inquest, was sitting on a chair in conversation with the family and a neighbour or two, when she suddenly sighed and fell down on the floor, and on being removed to the door life was found to be extinct. She had not before been subject to any complaints of any desription, and was in the enjoyment of her usual good health. Verdict -- Died by the Visitation of God.
Carlisle Journal, Saturday, 06 Jul 1844, page 2
Carlisle Journal, Saturday, 06 Jul 1844, page 2
Mary Barker, Whitehaven, Cumberland, England, 1844
DEATHS
At Whitehaven, on Thursday last, shortly after giving birth to a son, Mary, the wife of Mr. Richard Barker, in the 38th year of her age.
Carlisle Journal, Saturday, 20 Jan 1844, page 3
At Whitehaven, on Thursday last, shortly after giving birth to a son, Mary, the wife of Mr. Richard Barker, in the 38th year of her age.
Carlisle Journal, Saturday, 20 Jan 1844, page 3
Emma Satterthwaite Stubbs, Whiston, Orton, England, 1844
DEATHS
At Whiston, near Liverpool, on Wednesday the 8th instant, aged 47, Emma, the wife of Mr. Jas. Stubbs, formerly of Orton, in Westmorland.
Westmorland Gazette, Saturday, 20 Jan 1844, Page 3
At Whiston, near Liverpool, aged 47, Emma, the wife of James Stubbs, formerly of Orton, in Westmorland. The deceased was well and had put on her cloak and bonnet intending to go out to see a sick neighbour, when she was seized with a fit; medical aid was immediately procured, but no assistance could be rendered; she lingered a few hours and then died.
Carlisle Journal, Saturday, 20 Jan 1844, page 3
At Whiston, near Liverpool, on Wednesday the 8th instant, aged 47, Emma, the wife of Mr. Jas. Stubbs, formerly of Orton, in Westmorland.
Westmorland Gazette, Saturday, 20 Jan 1844, Page 3
At Whiston, near Liverpool, aged 47, Emma, the wife of James Stubbs, formerly of Orton, in Westmorland. The deceased was well and had put on her cloak and bonnet intending to go out to see a sick neighbour, when she was seized with a fit; medical aid was immediately procured, but no assistance could be rendered; she lingered a few hours and then died.
Carlisle Journal, Saturday, 20 Jan 1844, page 3
Henry Hewitson (Hewetson), Ravenstondale, Turnham Green, England, 1838
DEATHS
At Turnham Green, Middlesex, on the 8th ultimo, Henry Hewitson, Esq., aged 82 years; sincerely and deservedly respected. Mr. H. was a native of Ravenstonedale, in the county of Westmorland. He died worth nearly a million of money, and amongst various other legacies, bequeathed to six nephews and nieces, residing in his native parish, and the adjoining parish of Orton, the sum of one hundred and fifty thousand pounds.
Carlisle Journal, Saturday, 07 Apr 1838, page 4.
At Turnham Green, Middlesex, on the 8th ultimo, Henry Hewitson, Esq., aged 82 years; sincerely and deservedly respected. Mr. H. was a native of Ravenstonedale, in the county of Westmorland. He died worth nearly a million of money, and amongst various other legacies, bequeathed to six nephews and nieces, residing in his native parish, and the adjoining parish of Orton, the sum of one hundred and fifty thousand pounds.
Carlisle Journal, Saturday, 07 Apr 1838, page 4.
Thomas Jacques, Hackthorpe, Westmorland, England, 1859
DEATHS
On the 28th ult., at Hackthorpe, very suddenly, Mr. Thomas Jacques, many years ostler at the Lowther Castle Inn, Hackthorpe, aged 64 years.
Kendal Mercury, Saturday, 07 May 1859, page 8
On the 28th ult., at Hackthorpe, very suddenly, Mr. Thomas Jacques, many years ostler at the Lowther Castle Inn, Hackthorpe, aged 64 years.
Kendal Mercury, Saturday, 07 May 1859, page 8
Jonathan Creighton, Kendal, Westmorland, England, 1860
CHILD KILLED WHILE PLAYING WITH RAILWAY WAGGONS
Robert Stubbs, son of John Stubbs, Kendal, cart driver:
"I knew Jonathan Creighton. He was a boy about ten years of age. He was a scholar at St. George's Sunday School, and I am also a scholar at the same school. We both attended the school yesterday. About 4:00 in the afternoon, when I was leaving the school, I saw the deceased and some other boys playing about the railway wagons, which were in the siding near to the school. The deceased was riding upon a stick placed in front of an empty wagon, and some little boys were pushing it, along towards another wagon, which was loaded with wood. All the other boys and myself endeavoured to stop the wagon before it reached the wood wagon, and we pulled back as hard as could, but we could not stop it. As the wagons came near to each other, the deceased endeavoured to get away, but he was caught between the buffers, one being on each side of his chest, under his arms, and pressed and injured him. He shrieked out, and when the empty wagon retired, he fell down. Some people came and took him to a stable near to the place, and he died in a very short time. I think, if he had stooped down, he might have escaped, but he endeavoured to pass between the buffers and get outside. No one was to blame but the deceased himself. We all did our best to prevent the wagons from coming together."
Thomas Marshall, a little boy of nine years old, gave similar evidence.
Edward Scott, of Kendal, cabinetmaker:
"Yesterday afternoon, about 4:00, I was standing in the approach to the Kendal and Windermere railway station, near St. George's school, when a number of little boys came running towards me screaming. I went to the place, when I found the deceased sitting on the ground between the metals. I went down to him and found that he had been injured, and he was bleeding from his nostrils and ears. I raised him from the ground and took him into a stable connected with the Railway Tavern. Mr. Longmire, surgeon, was sent for, and I went to tell his mother. In about ten minutes afterwards, I met some persons bringing his dead body up Stramongate towards his mother's house.
Verdict:
Accidentally killed by being jammed between the buffers of two wagons on the Kendal & Windermere railway.
The Westmorland Gazette, Satruday, 25 Aug 1860, page 5
Robert Stubbs, son of John Stubbs, Kendal, cart driver:
"I knew Jonathan Creighton. He was a boy about ten years of age. He was a scholar at St. George's Sunday School, and I am also a scholar at the same school. We both attended the school yesterday. About 4:00 in the afternoon, when I was leaving the school, I saw the deceased and some other boys playing about the railway wagons, which were in the siding near to the school. The deceased was riding upon a stick placed in front of an empty wagon, and some little boys were pushing it, along towards another wagon, which was loaded with wood. All the other boys and myself endeavoured to stop the wagon before it reached the wood wagon, and we pulled back as hard as could, but we could not stop it. As the wagons came near to each other, the deceased endeavoured to get away, but he was caught between the buffers, one being on each side of his chest, under his arms, and pressed and injured him. He shrieked out, and when the empty wagon retired, he fell down. Some people came and took him to a stable near to the place, and he died in a very short time. I think, if he had stooped down, he might have escaped, but he endeavoured to pass between the buffers and get outside. No one was to blame but the deceased himself. We all did our best to prevent the wagons from coming together."
Thomas Marshall, a little boy of nine years old, gave similar evidence.
Edward Scott, of Kendal, cabinetmaker:
"Yesterday afternoon, about 4:00, I was standing in the approach to the Kendal and Windermere railway station, near St. George's school, when a number of little boys came running towards me screaming. I went to the place, when I found the deceased sitting on the ground between the metals. I went down to him and found that he had been injured, and he was bleeding from his nostrils and ears. I raised him from the ground and took him into a stable connected with the Railway Tavern. Mr. Longmire, surgeon, was sent for, and I went to tell his mother. In about ten minutes afterwards, I met some persons bringing his dead body up Stramongate towards his mother's house.
Verdict:
Accidentally killed by being jammed between the buffers of two wagons on the Kendal & Windermere railway.
The Westmorland Gazette, Satruday, 25 Aug 1860, page 5
Tuesday, June 4, 2013
Ralph Hodgson, George Hodgson, Bishop's Auckland, Durham, England, 1818
DEATHS.
On the 1st instant, at Bishop's Auckland, Ralph Hodgson, Esq. aged 81; and, on the 8th instant, his brother, George Hodgson, Esq., aged 77. he was upwards of 50 years Surveyor in the General Post Office, and deservedly lamented.
Westmorland Gazette, Saturday, 19 Dec 1818, page 3
On the 1st instant, at Bishop's Auckland, Ralph Hodgson, Esq. aged 81; and, on the 8th instant, his brother, George Hodgson, Esq., aged 77. he was upwards of 50 years Surveyor in the General Post Office, and deservedly lamented.
Westmorland Gazette, Saturday, 19 Dec 1818, page 3
Alexander & Margaret Nelson, Mary Morland, Ann Mason, Dent, Yorkshire, England, 1818
DEATHS
Lately at Bazzlebusk, in Dent, near Sedbergh, Margaret, wife of Alexander Nelson, at the advanced age of 91. She retained her faculties unimpaired till the last. It is worthy of remark that three brothers and three sisters of this family lately resided in the same house, whose united ages amounted to 500+ years.
Lately, in the same neighbourhood, Mary Morland and Ann Mason: the sum of their united ages is 182 years. These remarkable instances of longevity furnish a strong proof of the salubrity of the sequestered vale of Dent, and of the abstemious habits of its inhabitants.
Westmorland Gazette, Saturday, 19 Dec 1818, page 3
Lately at Bazzlebusk, in Dent, near Sedbergh, Margaret, wife of Alexander Nelson, at the advanced age of 91. She retained her faculties unimpaired till the last. It is worthy of remark that three brothers and three sisters of this family lately resided in the same house, whose united ages amounted to 500+ years.
Lately, in the same neighbourhood, Mary Morland and Ann Mason: the sum of their united ages is 182 years. These remarkable instances of longevity furnish a strong proof of the salubrity of the sequestered vale of Dent, and of the abstemious habits of its inhabitants.
Westmorland Gazette, Saturday, 19 Dec 1818, page 3
Monday, June 3, 2013
Henry Steele, Ennerdale, Cumberland, England, 1817
DEATHS
Wednesday, at Thwaite, in Ennerdale, Mr. Henry Steele, aged 83. The deceased was the oldest but one of a family of four persons. Ann Bragg, of Moorehouse, aged 85, Martha Rolling, of Ennerdale, 81, and William Steele, of Uldale, 79, are yet living.
Carlisle Patriot, Saturday, 26 Jul 1817, page 3
Wednesday, at Thwaite, in Ennerdale, Mr. Henry Steele, aged 83. The deceased was the oldest but one of a family of four persons. Ann Bragg, of Moorehouse, aged 85, Martha Rolling, of Ennerdale, 81, and William Steele, of Uldale, 79, are yet living.
Carlisle Patriot, Saturday, 26 Jul 1817, page 3
Samuel Averill, Newnham, Kent, England, 1821
DIED
At Newnham, at the advanced age of 107, Mr. Samuel Averill.
Westmorland Gazette, Saturday, 20 Jan 1821, page 3
At Newnham, at the advanced age of 107, Mr. Samuel Averill.
Westmorland Gazette, Saturday, 20 Jan 1821, page 3
William Dodd, Bellingham, England, 1821
BIRTHS
On New Year's day, the wife of Mr. William Dodd, of Watergate, near Bellingham, of a daughter, with two full grown teeth in front.
Westmorland Gazette, Saturday, 20 Jan 1821, page 3
On New Year's day, the wife of Mr. William Dodd, of Watergate, near Bellingham, of a daughter, with two full grown teeth in front.
Westmorland Gazette, Saturday, 20 Jan 1821, page 3
Robert Bowman, Irthington, Cumberland, England, 1821, 1823
IF YOU ARE READING THIS, THEN THE THIRD ARTICLE IS NOT COMPLETELY TRANSCRIBED. CHECK BACK TOMORROW.
Carlisle Patriot, Saturday, 26 July 1817, page 4
(FOR THE CARLISLE PATRIOT)
MEMOIRS OF A VERY OLD VILLAGER
[written on 18 Jul 1817]
Few counties in the kingdom have produced so many instances of longevity as CUMBERLAND, which, perhaps, may be attributed to the salubrity of her mountain-air, to the constitutional vivacity of her inhabitants, as well as to their temperate and regular modes of life. When we walk into its church-yards, particularly in the country, we often see tomb-stones in memory of persons who have died at the age of 80 or 90 years. In Castle-Sowerby Church-yard, we find the monument of a man, who, if my memory does not deceive me, had reached his one hundred and ninth year; and, about the middle of the last century, a woman died in the eastern parts of the county at the age of one hundred and ten years, who could remember the siege of CARLISLE by CROMWELL's forces, when a horse's head sold for half a crown, about fifteen shillings of our present money. Even in these days of degeneracy, when luxury and intemperance have so much contributed
to abridge human life, we frequently observe in a summer evening a number of gray-headed men sitting at the threshold of their cottages, and viewing their great grand children at play on the village green.
As every thing which AGE has made venerable becomes an object of curiosity, the following narrative of the life of a very old man, given in all the simplicity which such a topic requires, may not be uninteresting to the Reader.
ROBERT BOWMAN, (the subject of these memoirs), was born at Hayton, near Brampton, in 1705, and was brought up to the profession of a husbandman. He has resided during the last forty years of his life at Irthington, a pleasant hamlet surrounded by a tract of dry and well-cultivated land, about seven miles from CARLISLE. Some time last May, accompanied by my worthy friends the Vicar of the parish and his Son, I paid a visit to his humble habitation, which, like its aged proprietor, has withstood many a wintry blast. I found him lying on a couch near the fire-place, with the roseate glow of health on his cheeks and a serenity on his countenance that indicated the tranquility of his heart. I approached him with all the veneration that is due to an old man of an hundred and twelve; and was happy to find, in the course of conversation, that TIME, though it had blanched his locks and furrowed his brow, had not impaired his hearing, his memory, or his intellects; and that, though it had extended him on his couch, and incapacitated him from walking, he was not without hopes of continuing the contest with the tyrant a few years longer. All the occurrences of his youth are still fresh in his memory. He well remembers the insurrection of the Scots in 1715, in favour of the Pretender, when the Sheriff of Cumberland mustered on PENRITH Fell the Posse comitatus, to stop the progress of the rebels, and can recollect the time when Barley was three shillings a bushel (Carlisle measure), Oats eighteen pence, Butter three-pence a pound, and eggs a penny a dozen. Wheat and potatoes had not then made their appearance in Cumberland, and animal and tea were mostly confined to the tables of the opulent. If the Cumbrian Peasant could see an oatmeal pan-cake and a cowed tword [ed: sp may be wrong], (a sort of pudding made of oat-meal and hog's lard), smoking on his board, he cast no longing eye at the flesh-pots of his more wealthy countrymen.
At the age of fity, our venerable villager married and took a farm of five pounds per annum in his native parish, which he managed so successfully as to realize a little fortune. He had all the merit of a good farmer; he was skilful, frugal, active, and industrious; and, what adds not a little to his character, was well respected by his neighbours. His wife, who had been long the sharer of his toils, and by whom he had several children, died some years ago. He felt her loss sensibly; but had too much veneration for her memory to enter into a second marriage. He determined to live a chaste widower; and "the bonniest lass (he would say) that ever was wooed in a corner should never tempt him to break that resolution".
Long after he had completed a century, TIME had made so little impression on his constitution that he could perform the most laborious operations of husbandry, and use the spade, the flail, the scythe, and the reaping hook with all the vigour and dexterity of a person that has not seen thirty summers. At the age of one hundred and nine, he walked to and from Carlisle, a distance of fourteen miles, with an expedition that would surprise men in these degenerate times; and it is little more than a year since he was assisting his family at their harvest-work.
He has always lived abstemiously; his diet being chiefly potatoes, butter, cheese, milk, and hasty-pudding*. Snuff or tobacco he never used, and seldom tasted spirituous liquors. He is no friend to tea-drinking, to the general prevalence of which he imputes the whole train of nervous disorders and mental maladies which have spread so much pain and misery over the world. He has no aversion to ale, provided it be made of good malt and hops, which, he says, was always the case before the establishment of public breweries. He was never intoxicated but once during his life; a circumstance that happened during the festivity of a marriage, when that grave virtue SOBRIETY is generally forced to give way to jolly Comus and his train. His dress was generally light, even in the rigour of winter; and, whether the weather was cold or tempestuous, he was seldom seen muffled up in a surtout. He rarely wore gloves, which he considered as an effeminate covering; and boots and spatterdashes were also rejected for the same reason. He made it invariably his practice to go to bed soon and rise early, and during the summer-season generally took a noon-tide nap on some breezy bank where he enjoyed the air in all its purity and elasticity. Of the beneficial effects of that element on the human system we can have no doubt. The Scriptures inform us that Methusalem always slept in the open air. An angel said to him, "Arise, Methusalem and build thee a house, for thou shalt live yet five hundred years longer." But Methusalem answered and said, "If I am to live but five hundred years longer, it is not worth while to build me a house--I will sleep in the air as I have been used to do."
His life, in many particulars, resembles that of old Parr, as described by TAYLOR the Water-poet:
"Good wholesome labour was his exercise,
Down with the Lamb and with the Lark would rise;
In mire and toiling sweat he spent the day,
And to his team he whistl'd time away.
The Cock his night-clock, and till day was done,
His watch and chief sun-dial ws the Sun,
He entertain'd no gout, no ache he felt,
The air was good and temp'rate where he dwelt,
While Mavisses and sweet-tongued Nightingales
Did chant him roundelays and madrigals."
It may seem rather astonishing in this sickly, pill-taking age, that a doctor's recipe was never known to enter his house; for, like many other old men who have enjoyed an uninterrupted state of good health, no argument could ever convince him of the utility of the medical profession. The strength of nature and a good constitution he thinks are sufficient to withstand any distemper with whatever severity it may make its attacks, and he looks upon the great increase of physicians and apothecaries as a melancholy testimony of modern times. To his industrious habits and temperance, to the restriction of the passions within the limits which Virtue and Religion prescribe, and to the equality and serenity of his temper, which he never suffered an over-solicitude for the perishable things of tihs world to destroy, as well as to the native vigour of his constitution, must be attributed, in a great measure, the great age which he has at present attained.
His stature hardly reaches the middle size, his frame is rather slender, excepting that he has a broad chest, and his countenance is said to have had formerly much animation. he retains still a part of the vivacity of his youth, is always cheerful, and sometimes facetious. He is communicative, but not garrulous, and is lavish of panegyric on past times, without any disposition to censure the present. To a man who has attained his 112th year it cannot be supposed that life can bring many pleasures. The companions of his youth are all gone, and a new generation has risen around him. He may well say with the author of "The Night Thoughts":
"----------- My world is dead,
A new world rises, and new manners reign,
What a pert race starts up! the stranger gaze,
And I at them; my neighbour is unknown."
But thought every thing appears dreary and solitary around him, the tranquillity of his mind has not forsaken him; he reposes with all the firmness of a good Christian on the hopes that there is "another and a better world", where sorrow, pain, and care shall not enter.
(Kirklinton, July 18, 1817) S.
*On this dish, called sometimes "Thick Pottage", the Cumbrian peasant makes generally his morning and evening repast. The following anecdote from Clarke's Introduction to his Survey of the Lakes, is a sufficient evidence of its wholesomeness: "A medical gentleman, who has taken up his residence in the neighbourhood of Keswick, on being asked 'how he liked his situation?' made the following reply: 'My situation is a very eligible one as a gentleman; I can ejoy every species of country amusement in the greatest perfection. I can fish, hunt, and shoot amidst a profusion of game of every kind; but, as a physician, I cannot say it is quite so alluring, for the natives have gotten the art of preserving their health without boluses or electuaries, by a sort of plaister taken inwardly called Thick Pottage; this preserves them from the various diseases that shake the human fabric, and makes them slide into the grave by the gradual decay of nature!'" After reading so strong an attestation in favour of this meritorious dish, who will not regret that the tea-kettle should have usurped the place of the pottage-pan in so many of our farm-houses?
++++++++++++++++
Carlisle Patriot, Saturday, 13 Jan 1821, page 4
Mr. Robert Bowman of Irthington, in Cumberland, who has completed his 115th year. By Dr. Barnes. In a letter to Professor Jameson.
Dear Sir,
I was lately induced by curiosity to visit a remarkable instance of longevity, of which I have drawn up the following brief notice. At my first visit, I was accompanied by two gentlemen, and on making inquiry for old Mr. Bowman, the name of the individual alluded to, the person of whom the inquiry was made, very significantly asked, if we meant "the old man of all?" I have since understood, that this is not an uncommon, and certainly very emphatic, appellation for the old man. You may probably think the following account contains too much of the physician, and too little of the philosopher, for insertion in the Philosophical Journal. But should you deem it sufficiently interesting for your publication, it is at your service. I am, Dear sir, your obedient servant, Thomas Barnes, M.D.
Carlisle, Sept, 14, 1820.
+++++++
ACCOUNT OF MR. ROBERT BOWMAN
Of Irthington, in Cumberland,
WHO HAS COMPLETED HIS 115TH YEAR.
BY DR. BARNES, OF CARLISLE.
Mr. Robert Bowman, of Irthington, in Cumberland, who is now living, and has completed his 115th year, was born at Bridgewood-Foot, a small farmhouse near the river Irthin, about two miles from his present residence. His birth-day is not known, but he believes he was born about Christmas. As some doubts have been entertained with respect to his age, to put it beyond dispute, I have examined the register of his baptism, at the parish church of Hayton. His name, and place of nativity, as well as the year of baptism, which was 1705, are very legible; but from his name having been placed at the foot of the page, the month and day are worn out. The baptism immediately preceding his, was on the 23rd of September, and the next succeeding on the 28th of October: of course, his must have been between these periods; and if his own account be ocrrect, which the register nearly confirms, he will be 116 years of age at Christmas next. This interesting old man enjoys exceeding good health, and is content and cheerful. He is of the middle stature and says, when young, he was rather stout, and very strong; that he was fond of wrestling, and considered himself a good one. He joined in the amusements common among young people, and was rather partial to cock-fighting which he now strongly condemns; he was always sober and regular in his conduct. His parents both died when he was young, but he says that he remembers them very well. He married at the age of 50, and had six sons, all of whom are now living; the oldest is 59 years of age, and the youngest 47. He has a great number of grandchildren, and three great grandchildren. His wife died at Irthington in 1807, at the age of 81. His sons pay him a visit regularly once a year: they appoint a convenient day, and his friends in the village and neighbourhood are invited to meet them. With him this is a day of great rejoicing. His chest is large, and his person well proportioned. Although the hand of time has at length laid him prostrate, it has not yet made much impression on his constitution. The texture of his body is not loose or emaciated, but firm, and in embonpoint. His face is not wrinkled or shrivelled, but appears plump, round and rather florid. His sight is tolerably good: he never used glasses, and can at present see every object around him distinctly. He hears very well, and his taste and smell are very good. His hearing and sense of smelling, indeed, are uncommonly acute. His skin is soft and delicate; and his hair, which, in his youth, was of a dark brown colour, is now white. He has had no teeth for upwards of forty years. He sleeps soundly in the night, and also frequently during the day. He has been confined to bed for six years past, yet he can move all his limbs; but he is not able to walk without the assistance of two persons. All his limbs are free from complaint, the right hand excepted, the fingers of which are much contracted. This contraction he attributes to an injury he received a few years ago on his shoulder joint. He always serves himself when taking food, for which purpose he uses his left hand, which is perfectly steady. Between six and seven years ago he walked to Carlisle, and returned home on the same day with great ease. Carlisle is about eight miles distant from his residence. He frequently took a staff with him, when walking but seldom used it: he generally carried it under his arm. Only seven years ago, he actually hedged, reaped corn, made hay, mounted stacks of corn and hay, and assisted in making them; in short, he applied himself to all sorts of farm-labour, and was, to use his own expression, always a "top worker". He first took to his bed during some severe weather in winter, not in consequence of any severe indisposition, but on account of the coldness of the season. He has preferred his bed since that time, for the superior comfort he derives from it. He resides with one of his sons, on his own estate, the fruits of his industry. The house which he inhabits is in the farm-house style; his bed is placed in a corner near the kitchen-fire, and he has unremitting attention paid to him by his family. For some time, his bed was in the parlour, but finding that he was at too great a distance from the family, preference was afterwards given to the kitchen. He does not remember ever having been indisposed in his life, excepting twice: the first time was when very young, and then he had the measles; the second was not many years ago when he had the hooping-cough. One of his grandchildren slept with him, and they both had the hooping-cough at the same time: he was then upward of 100 years of age. He has occasionally met with severe accidents, but never had a medical attendant and does not remember ever having taken a dose of medicine in his life. He was always strong and healthy: if he got wet, while working in the fields, he seldom changed his clothes, and would not unfrequently thrash in the barn, or use some other active employment until they became dry. He never took any tea or coffee, and was never intoxicated in his lfie but once, and that happened at a wedding. He says his friends deceived him, by putting something strong than he expected into the liquor he was drinking. He very seldom drank any ale, spirits, or wine, except occasionally at the market, at a wedding, or at a funeral, and then only a single glass. He gives two reasons for his not drinking; one is, that he had no pleasure in taking intoxicating liquors; the other, he liked his money much better than them. He confesses he was rather avaricious. His common drink is water. His food, milk, hasty-pudding, broth, bread, potatoes, an egg, a small piece of animal food, or any thing the family are taking. His clothing was always plain, but warm and comfortable. His appetite is good, and his bowels are generally moved every second day. He was never regular as to the time of taking his meals or going to sleep. He generally took three meals a day, and dined about mid-day. His breakfast and supper he took when opportunity permitted. Sometimes he omitted a meal, and at other times, took four or five in a day, as his appetite prompted, or his occupation allowed him. He went to bed at different times of the night, and sometimes rose at one hour and sometimes at another in the morning. When he went for lime or coal, which he often had occasion to do, he generally slept in the open air all night. Even at the advanced age of 80, during part of the summer season, he wrought daily at a peat-moss, a few miles from Irthington, and being there late in the evening with his horse and cart, he would sometimes unyoke the horse, let it go loose upon the common, and take his repose for the night in the cart. This is a good instance of his great industry, as well as of the strength of his constitution: his principal object in remaining all night was, that he might be able to pursue his employment early in the morning. His pulse is 68 in a minute, regular and strong; no ossification of the arteries at the wrist can be discovered. His breathing is natural; and his voice, which is rather strong, appears to have undergone very little change. His mental faculties seem perfect; his memory is excellent as to particular circumstances, but he does not remember dates. He is happy, and appears to enjoy life. He is alive to every thing arond him, and acquainted with all the news of the day, at least with such news as country people are generally conversant in, and particularly with any thing that has happened in the village or neighbourhood. When trying his memory, I asked him if he ever heard of the battle of Waterloo? He answered that he had heard too much of Buonaparte; that he was a bad character, and at best only a coward; as soon as he found himself in danger he ran off. I reminded him that he himself had once done the same thing, having been previously informed that he was employed during the rebellion in 1745 in making trenches around Carlisle, when he made a precipitate retreat: he laughed heartily, and confessed he ran away as soon as he could get; he said he only remained among the soldiers one night. He entered freely into conversation with me, and made many inquiries about Carlisle, and particularly about the Carlisle canal. He said, he remembered the first rebellion in 1715; he was then eight or ten years of age; he heard a great deal about it at the time, and saw several men running away from it. On asking him why he was so late in marrying, he said he never thought much about getting a wife, and how he got one he does not know, but thinks it was by mere accident. When inquiry was made of him if he still entertained any idea of marrying a second time, and if he would not like a young wife, he replied, he would not like a young one; that he thought an elderly one might suit him; but being so very comfortably situated, he was better without one. When I asked him if he ever used tobacco or snuff, he very shrewdly answered, he never wasted his money that way; he had plenty of ways of getting quit of money without setting fire to it; and as for spending it in snuff, it was just throwing it away. He seemed healthy and hearty. I have seldom been in the company of any one, either young or old, that enjoyed better spirits. His education has been very limited; but he appears to have profited much by a few plain rules of conduct. His mind has been seldom if ever affected by anxious care, restless ambition, or studious thought. He has led the life of an industrious and laborious farmer. He has been temperate in all his pleasures, for which reason they have been of long duration. He has been regular in his mode of living, which has produced an unusual share of rational enjoyment. He has never indulged to excess in sensual gratifications, nor committed any great irregularity. By him, exercise, temperance, and simplicity of diet have been considered cardinal virtures:---
"Multa tulit, fecitque puer, sudavit, et absit,
Abstinuity Venere et a vino." --- Horace.
"Though I look old, yet I am strong and lusty;
For in my youth I never did apply
Hot and rebellious liquors to my blood;
Nor did I, with unbashful forehead woo
The means of weakness and debility." --- Shakspeare.
I have been particular in describing his habits, dispositions, and appearance, from a conviction, that his habits and dispositions have essentially contributed to prolong his life through a long series of years; and as there is at present very little appearance of decay, he will, in all probability, yet continue to live for many years. Some of his relatives having lived to an extreme old age, it is probable that nature originally conferred upon him a good constitution. One of his brothers died in 1810, aged 99 years; two years ago, one of his cousins died aged 95 years, and he has another now living at the age of 85.
There is a remarkable difference between him and the generality of old people: he is cheerful, good-humoured, and easily satisfied; he does not complain of any unpleasant change that has taken place in any thing arond him, nor of the manners or habits of the people. This, I think, can in no way be accounted for, except from the perfect state of his senses and mental faculties. The degeneracy of the times, and the disagreeable changes of which many old people bitterly complain, are not so much to be attributed to any change in the objects around them, as to themselves: their senses and faculties being impaired, the same objects cease to make their former agreeable impressions.
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Westmorland Gazette, Saturday, 28 Jun 1823, page 4
DEATH OF
Mr. Robert Bowman, of Irthington,
in his 188th Year!
On the evening of Friday, the 13th inst., this venerable old man breathed his last, at Irthington, near Carlisle, in the 188th year of his age.
He was born at Bridgewood-Foot, a small farm-house, near the river Irthing, "about two miles . . . [repeats from the above article] . . . of course, his must have been between these two periods." Thus the age of this extraordinary man is ascertained with a precision not often met with in accounts of persons whose span of life has been extended in any considerable degree beyond the general term of "man's pilgrimage on earth".
In August, 1817, Mr. Thomas Sanderson, or Kirklington, (a writer whose productions have often delighted and instructed the Cumbrian public), inserted in this paper a memoir of Mr. Bowman, from which a few extracts at this time cannot fail to be generally acceptable . . . MORE TO COME
Carlisle Patriot, Saturday, 26 July 1817, page 4
(FOR THE CARLISLE PATRIOT)
MEMOIRS OF A VERY OLD VILLAGER
[written on 18 Jul 1817]
Few counties in the kingdom have produced so many instances of longevity as CUMBERLAND, which, perhaps, may be attributed to the salubrity of her mountain-air, to the constitutional vivacity of her inhabitants, as well as to their temperate and regular modes of life. When we walk into its church-yards, particularly in the country, we often see tomb-stones in memory of persons who have died at the age of 80 or 90 years. In Castle-Sowerby Church-yard, we find the monument of a man, who, if my memory does not deceive me, had reached his one hundred and ninth year; and, about the middle of the last century, a woman died in the eastern parts of the county at the age of one hundred and ten years, who could remember the siege of CARLISLE by CROMWELL's forces, when a horse's head sold for half a crown, about fifteen shillings of our present money. Even in these days of degeneracy, when luxury and intemperance have so much contributed
to abridge human life, we frequently observe in a summer evening a number of gray-headed men sitting at the threshold of their cottages, and viewing their great grand children at play on the village green.
As every thing which AGE has made venerable becomes an object of curiosity, the following narrative of the life of a very old man, given in all the simplicity which such a topic requires, may not be uninteresting to the Reader.
ROBERT BOWMAN, (the subject of these memoirs), was born at Hayton, near Brampton, in 1705, and was brought up to the profession of a husbandman. He has resided during the last forty years of his life at Irthington, a pleasant hamlet surrounded by a tract of dry and well-cultivated land, about seven miles from CARLISLE. Some time last May, accompanied by my worthy friends the Vicar of the parish and his Son, I paid a visit to his humble habitation, which, like its aged proprietor, has withstood many a wintry blast. I found him lying on a couch near the fire-place, with the roseate glow of health on his cheeks and a serenity on his countenance that indicated the tranquility of his heart. I approached him with all the veneration that is due to an old man of an hundred and twelve; and was happy to find, in the course of conversation, that TIME, though it had blanched his locks and furrowed his brow, had not impaired his hearing, his memory, or his intellects; and that, though it had extended him on his couch, and incapacitated him from walking, he was not without hopes of continuing the contest with the tyrant a few years longer. All the occurrences of his youth are still fresh in his memory. He well remembers the insurrection of the Scots in 1715, in favour of the Pretender, when the Sheriff of Cumberland mustered on PENRITH Fell the Posse comitatus, to stop the progress of the rebels, and can recollect the time when Barley was three shillings a bushel (Carlisle measure), Oats eighteen pence, Butter three-pence a pound, and eggs a penny a dozen. Wheat and potatoes had not then made their appearance in Cumberland, and animal and tea were mostly confined to the tables of the opulent. If the Cumbrian Peasant could see an oatmeal pan-cake and a cowed tword [ed: sp may be wrong], (a sort of pudding made of oat-meal and hog's lard), smoking on his board, he cast no longing eye at the flesh-pots of his more wealthy countrymen.
At the age of fity, our venerable villager married and took a farm of five pounds per annum in his native parish, which he managed so successfully as to realize a little fortune. He had all the merit of a good farmer; he was skilful, frugal, active, and industrious; and, what adds not a little to his character, was well respected by his neighbours. His wife, who had been long the sharer of his toils, and by whom he had several children, died some years ago. He felt her loss sensibly; but had too much veneration for her memory to enter into a second marriage. He determined to live a chaste widower; and "the bonniest lass (he would say) that ever was wooed in a corner should never tempt him to break that resolution".
Long after he had completed a century, TIME had made so little impression on his constitution that he could perform the most laborious operations of husbandry, and use the spade, the flail, the scythe, and the reaping hook with all the vigour and dexterity of a person that has not seen thirty summers. At the age of one hundred and nine, he walked to and from Carlisle, a distance of fourteen miles, with an expedition that would surprise men in these degenerate times; and it is little more than a year since he was assisting his family at their harvest-work.
He has always lived abstemiously; his diet being chiefly potatoes, butter, cheese, milk, and hasty-pudding*. Snuff or tobacco he never used, and seldom tasted spirituous liquors. He is no friend to tea-drinking, to the general prevalence of which he imputes the whole train of nervous disorders and mental maladies which have spread so much pain and misery over the world. He has no aversion to ale, provided it be made of good malt and hops, which, he says, was always the case before the establishment of public breweries. He was never intoxicated but once during his life; a circumstance that happened during the festivity of a marriage, when that grave virtue SOBRIETY is generally forced to give way to jolly Comus and his train. His dress was generally light, even in the rigour of winter; and, whether the weather was cold or tempestuous, he was seldom seen muffled up in a surtout. He rarely wore gloves, which he considered as an effeminate covering; and boots and spatterdashes were also rejected for the same reason. He made it invariably his practice to go to bed soon and rise early, and during the summer-season generally took a noon-tide nap on some breezy bank where he enjoyed the air in all its purity and elasticity. Of the beneficial effects of that element on the human system we can have no doubt. The Scriptures inform us that Methusalem always slept in the open air. An angel said to him, "Arise, Methusalem and build thee a house, for thou shalt live yet five hundred years longer." But Methusalem answered and said, "If I am to live but five hundred years longer, it is not worth while to build me a house--I will sleep in the air as I have been used to do."
His life, in many particulars, resembles that of old Parr, as described by TAYLOR the Water-poet:
"Good wholesome labour was his exercise,
Down with the Lamb and with the Lark would rise;
In mire and toiling sweat he spent the day,
And to his team he whistl'd time away.
The Cock his night-clock, and till day was done,
His watch and chief sun-dial ws the Sun,
He entertain'd no gout, no ache he felt,
The air was good and temp'rate where he dwelt,
While Mavisses and sweet-tongued Nightingales
Did chant him roundelays and madrigals."
It may seem rather astonishing in this sickly, pill-taking age, that a doctor's recipe was never known to enter his house; for, like many other old men who have enjoyed an uninterrupted state of good health, no argument could ever convince him of the utility of the medical profession. The strength of nature and a good constitution he thinks are sufficient to withstand any distemper with whatever severity it may make its attacks, and he looks upon the great increase of physicians and apothecaries as a melancholy testimony of modern times. To his industrious habits and temperance, to the restriction of the passions within the limits which Virtue and Religion prescribe, and to the equality and serenity of his temper, which he never suffered an over-solicitude for the perishable things of tihs world to destroy, as well as to the native vigour of his constitution, must be attributed, in a great measure, the great age which he has at present attained.
His stature hardly reaches the middle size, his frame is rather slender, excepting that he has a broad chest, and his countenance is said to have had formerly much animation. he retains still a part of the vivacity of his youth, is always cheerful, and sometimes facetious. He is communicative, but not garrulous, and is lavish of panegyric on past times, without any disposition to censure the present. To a man who has attained his 112th year it cannot be supposed that life can bring many pleasures. The companions of his youth are all gone, and a new generation has risen around him. He may well say with the author of "The Night Thoughts":
"----------- My world is dead,
A new world rises, and new manners reign,
What a pert race starts up! the stranger gaze,
And I at them; my neighbour is unknown."
But thought every thing appears dreary and solitary around him, the tranquillity of his mind has not forsaken him; he reposes with all the firmness of a good Christian on the hopes that there is "another and a better world", where sorrow, pain, and care shall not enter.
(Kirklinton, July 18, 1817) S.
*On this dish, called sometimes "Thick Pottage", the Cumbrian peasant makes generally his morning and evening repast. The following anecdote from Clarke's Introduction to his Survey of the Lakes, is a sufficient evidence of its wholesomeness: "A medical gentleman, who has taken up his residence in the neighbourhood of Keswick, on being asked 'how he liked his situation?' made the following reply: 'My situation is a very eligible one as a gentleman; I can ejoy every species of country amusement in the greatest perfection. I can fish, hunt, and shoot amidst a profusion of game of every kind; but, as a physician, I cannot say it is quite so alluring, for the natives have gotten the art of preserving their health without boluses or electuaries, by a sort of plaister taken inwardly called Thick Pottage; this preserves them from the various diseases that shake the human fabric, and makes them slide into the grave by the gradual decay of nature!'" After reading so strong an attestation in favour of this meritorious dish, who will not regret that the tea-kettle should have usurped the place of the pottage-pan in so many of our farm-houses?
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Carlisle Patriot, Saturday, 13 Jan 1821, page 4
Mr. Robert Bowman of Irthington, in Cumberland, who has completed his 115th year. By Dr. Barnes. In a letter to Professor Jameson.
Dear Sir,
I was lately induced by curiosity to visit a remarkable instance of longevity, of which I have drawn up the following brief notice. At my first visit, I was accompanied by two gentlemen, and on making inquiry for old Mr. Bowman, the name of the individual alluded to, the person of whom the inquiry was made, very significantly asked, if we meant "the old man of all?" I have since understood, that this is not an uncommon, and certainly very emphatic, appellation for the old man. You may probably think the following account contains too much of the physician, and too little of the philosopher, for insertion in the Philosophical Journal. But should you deem it sufficiently interesting for your publication, it is at your service. I am, Dear sir, your obedient servant, Thomas Barnes, M.D.
Carlisle, Sept, 14, 1820.
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ACCOUNT OF MR. ROBERT BOWMAN
Of Irthington, in Cumberland,
WHO HAS COMPLETED HIS 115TH YEAR.
BY DR. BARNES, OF CARLISLE.
Mr. Robert Bowman, of Irthington, in Cumberland, who is now living, and has completed his 115th year, was born at Bridgewood-Foot, a small farmhouse near the river Irthin, about two miles from his present residence. His birth-day is not known, but he believes he was born about Christmas. As some doubts have been entertained with respect to his age, to put it beyond dispute, I have examined the register of his baptism, at the parish church of Hayton. His name, and place of nativity, as well as the year of baptism, which was 1705, are very legible; but from his name having been placed at the foot of the page, the month and day are worn out. The baptism immediately preceding his, was on the 23rd of September, and the next succeeding on the 28th of October: of course, his must have been between these periods; and if his own account be ocrrect, which the register nearly confirms, he will be 116 years of age at Christmas next. This interesting old man enjoys exceeding good health, and is content and cheerful. He is of the middle stature and says, when young, he was rather stout, and very strong; that he was fond of wrestling, and considered himself a good one. He joined in the amusements common among young people, and was rather partial to cock-fighting which he now strongly condemns; he was always sober and regular in his conduct. His parents both died when he was young, but he says that he remembers them very well. He married at the age of 50, and had six sons, all of whom are now living; the oldest is 59 years of age, and the youngest 47. He has a great number of grandchildren, and three great grandchildren. His wife died at Irthington in 1807, at the age of 81. His sons pay him a visit regularly once a year: they appoint a convenient day, and his friends in the village and neighbourhood are invited to meet them. With him this is a day of great rejoicing. His chest is large, and his person well proportioned. Although the hand of time has at length laid him prostrate, it has not yet made much impression on his constitution. The texture of his body is not loose or emaciated, but firm, and in embonpoint. His face is not wrinkled or shrivelled, but appears plump, round and rather florid. His sight is tolerably good: he never used glasses, and can at present see every object around him distinctly. He hears very well, and his taste and smell are very good. His hearing and sense of smelling, indeed, are uncommonly acute. His skin is soft and delicate; and his hair, which, in his youth, was of a dark brown colour, is now white. He has had no teeth for upwards of forty years. He sleeps soundly in the night, and also frequently during the day. He has been confined to bed for six years past, yet he can move all his limbs; but he is not able to walk without the assistance of two persons. All his limbs are free from complaint, the right hand excepted, the fingers of which are much contracted. This contraction he attributes to an injury he received a few years ago on his shoulder joint. He always serves himself when taking food, for which purpose he uses his left hand, which is perfectly steady. Between six and seven years ago he walked to Carlisle, and returned home on the same day with great ease. Carlisle is about eight miles distant from his residence. He frequently took a staff with him, when walking but seldom used it: he generally carried it under his arm. Only seven years ago, he actually hedged, reaped corn, made hay, mounted stacks of corn and hay, and assisted in making them; in short, he applied himself to all sorts of farm-labour, and was, to use his own expression, always a "top worker". He first took to his bed during some severe weather in winter, not in consequence of any severe indisposition, but on account of the coldness of the season. He has preferred his bed since that time, for the superior comfort he derives from it. He resides with one of his sons, on his own estate, the fruits of his industry. The house which he inhabits is in the farm-house style; his bed is placed in a corner near the kitchen-fire, and he has unremitting attention paid to him by his family. For some time, his bed was in the parlour, but finding that he was at too great a distance from the family, preference was afterwards given to the kitchen. He does not remember ever having been indisposed in his life, excepting twice: the first time was when very young, and then he had the measles; the second was not many years ago when he had the hooping-cough. One of his grandchildren slept with him, and they both had the hooping-cough at the same time: he was then upward of 100 years of age. He has occasionally met with severe accidents, but never had a medical attendant and does not remember ever having taken a dose of medicine in his life. He was always strong and healthy: if he got wet, while working in the fields, he seldom changed his clothes, and would not unfrequently thrash in the barn, or use some other active employment until they became dry. He never took any tea or coffee, and was never intoxicated in his lfie but once, and that happened at a wedding. He says his friends deceived him, by putting something strong than he expected into the liquor he was drinking. He very seldom drank any ale, spirits, or wine, except occasionally at the market, at a wedding, or at a funeral, and then only a single glass. He gives two reasons for his not drinking; one is, that he had no pleasure in taking intoxicating liquors; the other, he liked his money much better than them. He confesses he was rather avaricious. His common drink is water. His food, milk, hasty-pudding, broth, bread, potatoes, an egg, a small piece of animal food, or any thing the family are taking. His clothing was always plain, but warm and comfortable. His appetite is good, and his bowels are generally moved every second day. He was never regular as to the time of taking his meals or going to sleep. He generally took three meals a day, and dined about mid-day. His breakfast and supper he took when opportunity permitted. Sometimes he omitted a meal, and at other times, took four or five in a day, as his appetite prompted, or his occupation allowed him. He went to bed at different times of the night, and sometimes rose at one hour and sometimes at another in the morning. When he went for lime or coal, which he often had occasion to do, he generally slept in the open air all night. Even at the advanced age of 80, during part of the summer season, he wrought daily at a peat-moss, a few miles from Irthington, and being there late in the evening with his horse and cart, he would sometimes unyoke the horse, let it go loose upon the common, and take his repose for the night in the cart. This is a good instance of his great industry, as well as of the strength of his constitution: his principal object in remaining all night was, that he might be able to pursue his employment early in the morning. His pulse is 68 in a minute, regular and strong; no ossification of the arteries at the wrist can be discovered. His breathing is natural; and his voice, which is rather strong, appears to have undergone very little change. His mental faculties seem perfect; his memory is excellent as to particular circumstances, but he does not remember dates. He is happy, and appears to enjoy life. He is alive to every thing arond him, and acquainted with all the news of the day, at least with such news as country people are generally conversant in, and particularly with any thing that has happened in the village or neighbourhood. When trying his memory, I asked him if he ever heard of the battle of Waterloo? He answered that he had heard too much of Buonaparte; that he was a bad character, and at best only a coward; as soon as he found himself in danger he ran off. I reminded him that he himself had once done the same thing, having been previously informed that he was employed during the rebellion in 1745 in making trenches around Carlisle, when he made a precipitate retreat: he laughed heartily, and confessed he ran away as soon as he could get; he said he only remained among the soldiers one night. He entered freely into conversation with me, and made many inquiries about Carlisle, and particularly about the Carlisle canal. He said, he remembered the first rebellion in 1715; he was then eight or ten years of age; he heard a great deal about it at the time, and saw several men running away from it. On asking him why he was so late in marrying, he said he never thought much about getting a wife, and how he got one he does not know, but thinks it was by mere accident. When inquiry was made of him if he still entertained any idea of marrying a second time, and if he would not like a young wife, he replied, he would not like a young one; that he thought an elderly one might suit him; but being so very comfortably situated, he was better without one. When I asked him if he ever used tobacco or snuff, he very shrewdly answered, he never wasted his money that way; he had plenty of ways of getting quit of money without setting fire to it; and as for spending it in snuff, it was just throwing it away. He seemed healthy and hearty. I have seldom been in the company of any one, either young or old, that enjoyed better spirits. His education has been very limited; but he appears to have profited much by a few plain rules of conduct. His mind has been seldom if ever affected by anxious care, restless ambition, or studious thought. He has led the life of an industrious and laborious farmer. He has been temperate in all his pleasures, for which reason they have been of long duration. He has been regular in his mode of living, which has produced an unusual share of rational enjoyment. He has never indulged to excess in sensual gratifications, nor committed any great irregularity. By him, exercise, temperance, and simplicity of diet have been considered cardinal virtures:---
"Multa tulit, fecitque puer, sudavit, et absit,
Abstinuity Venere et a vino." --- Horace.
"Though I look old, yet I am strong and lusty;
For in my youth I never did apply
Hot and rebellious liquors to my blood;
Nor did I, with unbashful forehead woo
The means of weakness and debility." --- Shakspeare.
I have been particular in describing his habits, dispositions, and appearance, from a conviction, that his habits and dispositions have essentially contributed to prolong his life through a long series of years; and as there is at present very little appearance of decay, he will, in all probability, yet continue to live for many years. Some of his relatives having lived to an extreme old age, it is probable that nature originally conferred upon him a good constitution. One of his brothers died in 1810, aged 99 years; two years ago, one of his cousins died aged 95 years, and he has another now living at the age of 85.
There is a remarkable difference between him and the generality of old people: he is cheerful, good-humoured, and easily satisfied; he does not complain of any unpleasant change that has taken place in any thing arond him, nor of the manners or habits of the people. This, I think, can in no way be accounted for, except from the perfect state of his senses and mental faculties. The degeneracy of the times, and the disagreeable changes of which many old people bitterly complain, are not so much to be attributed to any change in the objects around them, as to themselves: their senses and faculties being impaired, the same objects cease to make their former agreeable impressions.
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Westmorland Gazette, Saturday, 28 Jun 1823, page 4
DEATH OF
Mr. Robert Bowman, of Irthington,
in his 188th Year!
On the evening of Friday, the 13th inst., this venerable old man breathed his last, at Irthington, near Carlisle, in the 188th year of his age.
He was born at Bridgewood-Foot, a small farm-house, near the river Irthing, "about two miles . . . [repeats from the above article] . . . of course, his must have been between these two periods." Thus the age of this extraordinary man is ascertained with a precision not often met with in accounts of persons whose span of life has been extended in any considerable degree beyond the general term of "man's pilgrimage on earth".
In August, 1817, Mr. Thomas Sanderson, or Kirklington, (a writer whose productions have often delighted and instructed the Cumbrian public), inserted in this paper a memoir of Mr. Bowman, from which a few extracts at this time cannot fail to be generally acceptable . . . MORE TO COME
William Taylor, Hambleton, Fylde, Lancashire, England, 1821
DIED.
At Hambleton, in the Fylde, on Saturday se'nnight, William Taylor, aged 102, well known by the name of the "Old Hambleton Miller".
Westmorland Gazette, Saturday, 13 Oct 1821, Page3
At Hambleton, in the Fylde, on Saturday se'nnight, William Taylor, aged 102, well known by the name of the "Old Hambleton Miller".
Westmorland Gazette, Saturday, 13 Oct 1821, Page3
Mrs. T. Irwin, Belmont, Carlisle, Cumberland, England, 1821
DIED.
At Belmont, near Carlisle, Mrs. T. Irwin, aged 100 years. She retained her faculties to the last moment of her existence.
Westmorland Gazette, Saturday, 13 Oct 1821, Page3
At Belmont, near Carlisle, Mrs. T. Irwin, aged 100 years. She retained her faculties to the last moment of her existence.
Westmorland Gazette, Saturday, 13 Oct 1821, Page3
Robert Mercer, Jemima Morris, Chester, Cheshire, England, 1821
MARRIED.
On Tuesday se'nnight, at St. John's Church, Chester, Mr. Robert Mercer, of Henburn Bridge, near Blackburn, to Miss Jemima Morris, of Chester. The parties should have been married 36 years ago. The bridegroom has since been married, and had 18 children by his first wife. He had not seen his present wife for 35 years before Monday last, when he met her at Chester, and married her the following morning.
Westmorland Gazette, Saturday, 13 Oct 1821, Page3
On Tuesday se'nnight, at St. John's Church, Chester, Mr. Robert Mercer, of Henburn Bridge, near Blackburn, to Miss Jemima Morris, of Chester. The parties should have been married 36 years ago. The bridegroom has since been married, and had 18 children by his first wife. He had not seen his present wife for 35 years before Monday last, when he met her at Chester, and married her the following morning.
Westmorland Gazette, Saturday, 13 Oct 1821, Page3
Anthony Barnes, Elizabeth Robinson, Kendal, Westmorland, England, 1821
MARRIED
On Monday last, by the Rev. W. Whitelock, A.M., Mr. Anthony Barnes, coal agent, to Miss Robinson, both of this town.
Westmorland Gazette, Saturday, 13 Oct 1821, Page3
On Monday last, by the Rev. W. Whitelock, A.M., Mr. Anthony Barnes, coal agent, to Miss Robinson, both of this town.
Westmorland Gazette, Saturday, 13 Oct 1821, Page3
Death of Samuel Welldon on 08 Aug 1823, Petty Cury, Cambridge, England
DEATHS
On Friday last, aged 37, Mr. Samuel Welldon, of the Petty Cury. He had long suffered under a disorder of the lungs, but on retiring to bed on the preceding night, he appeared as well as usual; however, he was attacked with his old complaint early the next morning, and in less than five minutes he expired. --- He has left a widow and eight young children.
Cambridge Chronicle and Journal Friday, 15 August 1823, page 3
On Friday last, aged 37, Mr. Samuel Welldon, of the Petty Cury. He had long suffered under a disorder of the lungs, but on retiring to bed on the preceding night, he appeared as well as usual; however, he was attacked with his old complaint early the next morning, and in less than five minutes he expired. --- He has left a widow and eight young children.
Cambridge Chronicle and Journal Friday, 15 August 1823, page 3
George & Elizabeth Bennett, Skelsmerdale, Ormskirk, Westmorland, England, 1819
DEATHS
Lately, Elizabeth Bennett, wife of George Bennett, of Skelsmerdale, near Ormskirk, in the 75th year of her age, who, remarkable to relate, never experienced any illness whatever, till abaout a week before her death. She was the first who has departed this life of nine: none of the survivors ever experience any ill health, so as to deprive them from following their regular employment. There are five elder and three younger still living, who are now in very good health, and whose united ages amount to 591 years.
Westmorland Gazette, Saturday, 21 Aug 1819, page 3
Lately, Elizabeth Bennett, wife of George Bennett, of Skelsmerdale, near Ormskirk, in the 75th year of her age, who, remarkable to relate, never experienced any illness whatever, till abaout a week before her death. She was the first who has departed this life of nine: none of the survivors ever experience any ill health, so as to deprive them from following their regular employment. There are five elder and three younger still living, who are now in very good health, and whose united ages amount to 591 years.
Westmorland Gazette, Saturday, 21 Aug 1819, page 3
Abraham Pearson, Nancy Illingworth, Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, 1819
MARRIAGES.
Same place [at Bradford], Mr. Abraham Pearson, of Throstle-Nest, aged 77, to Miss Nancy Illingworth, aged 21, daughter of Mr. Benj. Illingworth, of Daisy-Hill, near Bradford.
Westmorland Gazette, Saturday, 21 Aug 1819, page 3
Same place [at Bradford], Mr. Abraham Pearson, of Throstle-Nest, aged 77, to Miss Nancy Illingworth, aged 21, daughter of Mr. Benj. Illingworth, of Daisy-Hill, near Bradford.
Westmorland Gazette, Saturday, 21 Aug 1819, page 3
Sunday, June 2, 2013
Mary McGarraty, Lurnabarson, Ireland, 1849
DEATHS.
In Lurnabarson, near Pomeroy, on the 22d of December, Mary M'Garraty, at the advanced age of 115 years. Not many weeks since she was known to spin a hank of yarn daily --- Irish Paper
Westmorland Gazette, Saturday, 13 Jan 1849, page 3
In Lurnabarson, near Pomeroy, on the 22d of December, Mary M'Garraty, at the advanced age of 115 years. Not many weeks since she was known to spin a hank of yarn daily --- Irish Paper
Westmorland Gazette, Saturday, 13 Jan 1849, page 3
William Harvey, Bath, Somerset, England, 1849
DEATHS.
Dec. 23, at Dill's court, Corn street, Bath, in his 105th year, William Harvey, by trade a smith, and many years in the band of the 75th Regiment. He was one of the band at the last ball given by the officers on board the Royal George, before that noble vessel was capsized.
Westmorland Gazette, Saturday, 13 Jan 1849, page 3
Dec. 23, at Dill's court, Corn street, Bath, in his 105th year, William Harvey, by trade a smith, and many years in the band of the 75th Regiment. He was one of the band at the last ball given by the officers on board the Royal George, before that noble vessel was capsized.
Westmorland Gazette, Saturday, 13 Jan 1849, page 3
William Pearson, John Rumney, Westmorland, England, 1849
DEATHS.
At Brough, on the 6th inst., after a protacted illness, borne with exemplary patience and resignation, Mr. W.N. Pearson, grandson of the late John Rumney, Esq., surgeon, aged 18 years. His superior mind early imbued with religious principles, and his kind and affectionate disposition, made him universally beloved, and his premature death will be long and sincerely regretted by all who had the pleasure of his acquaintance.
Westmorland Gazette, Saturday, 13 Jan 1849, page 3
At Brough, on the 6th inst., after a protacted illness, borne with exemplary patience and resignation, Mr. W.N. Pearson, grandson of the late John Rumney, Esq., surgeon, aged 18 years. His superior mind early imbued with religious principles, and his kind and affectionate disposition, made him universally beloved, and his premature death will be long and sincerely regretted by all who had the pleasure of his acquaintance.
Westmorland Gazette, Saturday, 13 Jan 1849, page 3
Hartley Coleridge, Rydal, Westmorland, England, 1849
DEATHS.
On Saturday last, at Rydal, Hartley Coleridge, eldest son of the late S.T. Coleridge, of bronchitis, after an illness of three weeks.
Westmorland Gazette, Saturday, 13 Jan 1849, page 3
On Saturday last, at Rydal, Hartley Coleridge, eldest son of the late S.T. Coleridge, of bronchitis, after an illness of three weeks.
Westmorland Gazette, Saturday, 13 Jan 1849, page 3
Richard Gathorne, Rev. Whittington Rectory, Westmorland, England, 1849
DEATHS
Lately, in London, where he had [gone] for medical advice, the Rev. Richard Gathorne, M.A., late of Whittington Rectory, near Kirkby Lonsdale, aged 25 years.
Westmorland Gazette, Saturday, 13 Jan 1849, page 3
Lately, in London, where he had [gone] for medical advice, the Rev. Richard Gathorne, M.A., late of Whittington Rectory, near Kirkby Lonsdale, aged 25 years.
Westmorland Gazette, Saturday, 13 Jan 1849, page 3
John Boow, Rusland, Lancashire, England, 1849
DEATHS
At Rusland, on the 7th inst., Mr. John Boow, formerly farmer in Underbarrow, aged 88 years.
Westmorland Gazette, Saturday, 13 Jan 1849, page 3
At Rusland, on the 7th inst., Mr. John Boow, formerly farmer in Underbarrow, aged 88 years.
Westmorland Gazette, Saturday, 13 Jan 1849, page 3
Ellen Sill, Kendal, Westmorland, England, 1849
DEATHS
At Mire Side, Old Town, on Sunday last, Ellen, wife of Mr. John Sill, farmer, after a long illness, aged 32, much respected.
Westmorland Gazette, Saturday, 13 Jan 1849, page 3
At Mire Side, Old Town, on Sunday last, Ellen, wife of Mr. John Sill, farmer, after a long illness, aged 32, much respected.
Westmorland Gazette, Saturday, 13 Jan 1849, page 3
James Cox, Stricklandgate, Kendal, Westmorland, England, 1849
DEATHS
In Redmayne's Yard, Stricklandgate, on Monday last, Mr. James Cox, in the 67th year of his age.
Westmorland Gazette, Saturday, 13 Jan 1849, page 3
In Redmayne's Yard, Stricklandgate, on Monday last, Mr. James Cox, in the 67th year of his age.
Westmorland Gazette, Saturday, 13 Jan 1849, page 3
Agnes Bell, Kendal, Westmorland, England, 1849
DEATHS
In Strickland Place, on Sunday last, in childbed, Agnes, the beloved wife of Mr. Thomas Bell, printer, in the 24th year of her age.
Westmorland Gazette, Saturday, 13 Jan 1849, page 3
In Strickland Place, on Sunday last, in childbed, Agnes, the beloved wife of Mr. Thomas Bell, printer, in the 24th year of her age.
Westmorland Gazette, Saturday, 13 Jan 1849, page 3
Saturday, June 1, 2013
Sarah Hastwell, Cold Cale, Kirkby Stephen, Westmorland, England, 1841
DEATHS
On the 18th instant, at Cold Cale, in the parish of Kirkby Stephen, in child-bed, Sarah, the wife of Richard Hastwell, farmer, aged 30.
Kendal Mercury, Saturday, 27 February 1841, page 3
On the 18th instant, at Cold Cale, in the parish of Kirkby Stephen, in child-bed, Sarah, the wife of Richard Hastwell, farmer, aged 30.
Kendal Mercury, Saturday, 27 February 1841, page 3
Hannah Woolcock, Coniston, Lancashire, England, 1841
DEATHS
At Coniston, on the 15th inst., in child-bed, Hannah, the beloved wife, of Mr Joseph Woolcock, aged 20 years.
Kendal Mercury, Saturday, 27 February 1841, page 3
At Coniston, on the 15th inst., in child-bed, Hannah, the beloved wife, of Mr Joseph Woolcock, aged 20 years.
Kendal Mercury, Saturday, 27 February 1841, page 3
James Butterwith (Butterworth), Highgate, Kendal, Westmorland, England, 1865
DEATHS
BUTTERWITH. In Highgate, Kendal, on the 17th inst., Mr James Butterwith, of Liverpool, aged 30 years.
Kendal Mercury, 22 Apr 1865, page 3
BUTTERWITH. In Highgate, Kendal, on the 17th inst., Mr James Butterwith, of Liverpool, aged 30 years.
Kendal Mercury, 22 Apr 1865, page 3
John Chapman, Dalepark, Hawkshead, Lancashire, England, 1864
DEATHS
At Dalepark, near Hawkshead, of diphtheria, the children of John Chapman, labourer, on the 1st inst., Agnes, aged 9 years; on the 2nd, John James, aged 6 years; on the 10th Mary Ann, aged 4 years; same day, Sarah Hannah, aged 14 months; and on the 16th, Margaret, aged 13 years. There is one child left of this family that has got through this fearful complaint, and strange to say it was always the weakliest child of all.
Kendal Mercury, Saturday, 20 Feb 1864, page 8
At Dalepark, near Hawkshead, of diphtheria, the children of John Chapman, labourer, on the 1st inst., Agnes, aged 9 years; on the 2nd, John James, aged 6 years; on the 10th Mary Ann, aged 4 years; same day, Sarah Hannah, aged 14 months; and on the 16th, Margaret, aged 13 years. There is one child left of this family that has got through this fearful complaint, and strange to say it was always the weakliest child of all.
Kendal Mercury, Saturday, 20 Feb 1864, page 8
Robert Carr Brackenbury, Raithley Hall, Lincolnshire, England, 1818
The the Editor of the Carlisle Patriot.
Sir,
I observe in your paper, and also in the Carlisle Journal for the 29th ult., that the late Robert Carr Brackenbury, of Raithley-Hall, Esq. is represented as having been at one time a well known character on the Turf. From the long person intimacy which subsisted between him and myself, I can assure you and your readers, he never was a Sporting character. At an early period of life, he joined the Wesleyan Methodists, and for upwards of 40 years, has been a respectable and useful Minister and member of that body of Christians.
I am, Sir, yours &c.
J.L.
Carlisle, Sep. 10, 1818
Sir,
I observe in your paper, and also in the Carlisle Journal for the 29th ult., that the late Robert Carr Brackenbury, of Raithley-Hall, Esq. is represented as having been at one time a well known character on the Turf. From the long person intimacy which subsisted between him and myself, I can assure you and your readers, he never was a Sporting character. At an early period of life, he joined the Wesleyan Methodists, and for upwards of 40 years, has been a respectable and useful Minister and member of that body of Christians.
I am, Sir, yours &c.
J.L.
Carlisle, Sep. 10, 1818
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