South Australian Register (Adelaide, SA : 1839 - 1900), Wednesday 3 November 1847, page 4


LONGEVITY.

There is living, in Baronscourt, a man named James Taggart, who has arrived at the patriarchal age of 121 years; he is able to walk to Omagh (7 miles) and transact business, and, what is equally as-

tonishing, his son, who resided at Omagh, has been a commercial traveller for 70 years, and is now in the 99th year of his age. He still retains his faculties, and has not a grey hair in his head. — Erne Packet. The oldest inhabitant died at Akron, Ohio, on the 3rd March. His name was John Shepherd, aged 118 years 9 months and 18 days. He fought in the bat-tles of Brandy wine and Germantown Flats, and was wounded at the former. — New York Sun. The “ oldest inhabitant ” is said to be a woman now living in Moscow, who is 168 years of age. At the age of 122 she married her fifth husband. Died at Kilmarnock, on the 13th May, Mr John Blane, formerly coachdriver, in the eighty-fifth year of his age. By the demise of Mr Blane another of those links which connect the poet Burns with the present generation is removed. During the period Burns held the farm of Mossgiel deceased was in his service, and, we believe, first acted as gadsman, and afterwards “ essayed the handling of the plough” on the ground made memorable by the turning up, by the ruthless ploughshare, of the mouse’s nest, and of the “ wee modest crimson- tipped flower.” De-ceased frequently accompanied Burns in his visits to the “ Mauchline Belles; ” and several anecdotes re-garding the great bard have, it is feared, been lost for want of a chronicler. With one exception, there is now none in Kilmarnock who were personally ac-quainted with Burns. — Glasgow Constitutional. The Kendal Mercury says, that Mr Wm. Thomp-son, of Sandgate, Penrith, yeoman, aged 93, remem-bers the first stage-coach coming through Penrith, and lately saw the last mail pass through that town. The Journal de Debats announces the death, on the 18th May, at Montmorillon, in the department of the Vienne, of Madame Durand de Coupe, at the age of 101 years, three months, and fifteen days. She enjoyed the full use of all her faculties to the last moment, and even read without the aid of spectacles. She was born at Poitiers on the 3rd of February, 1746. “ John Limeburner,” the oldest colonist in Syd-ney, died in September last, at the advanced age of 104 years. He helped to pitch the first tent in Sydney, and remembered the first display of the British flag there, which was hoisted on a swamp oak-tree, then growing on a spot now occupied as the Water-Police Court. He was the last of those called the “ first-fleeters” (arrivals by the first convict ships) and, notwithstanding his great age, retained his faculties to the last. Yesterday a man applied at the police office to obtain a special clearance for Port Phillip, who stated that he was 104 years old. Some doubt being raised on the subject from the man’s appearance, he was asked what year he was born in, when he answered that he did not exactly know in what year he was born, but that he was about 16 years old, when King George III was crowned. Our informant describes him as a hale man, apparently little more than half that age, — Hobart Town Advertiser, June 18. Mr John Read, a person who spent a long life in the pursnits of science, invented the stomach-pump, and originated or improved many useful medical and agricultural implements, died on the 22nd May, in his 87th year. In Coventry-street, two doors below the Shakspere Inn, lives Mary Cook, who was baptized in Ribbes-ford Church in 1742. This poor widow, who has at least seen one hundred and five winters, is still able to walk, with the assistance of her stick, to Church-street, and may be seen once in the month wending her way to receive her monthly allowance from the church of one shilling. — Ten Towns Messenger. A relic of the Irish Parliament has just been re-moved by death, at the age of ninety-seven ; Mr Nicholas Price, of Saintfield-house, county of Down, who enjoyed a pension of £1500 a-year for the ex-tinction of his office as Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod in the Irish House of Commons. There is now a pensioner in Greenwich Hospital, named William Strickley, who has completed his 101st year, having been born at Blandford on the 27th of April, 1746. He still enjoys good health and all his faculties, excepting that his eyesight be-gins to fail. Died at Copperhouse, on the 18th April, Mr John Rowse, a tanner, at the advanced age of 98 years. By his death the lease of an estate in the neighbour-hood of St Austell expires. When a child he had a very healthy appearance, which induced some of his friends, who were about to take a lease, to put his life on it; and so far were their expectations realised, that the estate has successively passed into three generations, and in six years more the whole terms of the lease of 99 years would have expired. — Cornwall Gazette. A labourer, named Singleton, who has attained the age of ninety- four, walked from Galgate to Lancaster lately, to get measured for a suit of clothes. ___________________________________________

Religion is the best armour that any man can have, but the worst of cloaks. The churchyard is the market-place where the things of this world are duly rated.— Baxter. “ I can’t find bread for my family,” said a lazy fellow in company. “ Nor I,” replied an industrious miller, “ I am obliged to work for it.” “ Money makes the man.” Perhaps it does, but Punch, thinks it particularly necessary that man should make the money first. A person preaching at Nantucket, said, “ Every tub must stand on its own bottom.” A sailor jumped up, and said, “ But, madam, suppose it has no bot-tom ?” “ Then it’s no tub,” she returned quickly, and went on with her sermon. The Editor of the Boston Post says —“ All that is necessary for the enjoyment of sausages at break-fast is confidence.” “ I do not wish to say anything against the indivi-dual in question,” said a very polite and accomplished gentleman, upon a certain occasion, “ but I would merely remark, in the language of the poet, that to him, ‘ truth is strange — stranger than fiction.’ ” “ I keep an excellent table,” said a lady, disputing with one of the boarders. “ That may be true, ma’am,” says he, “ but you put very little upon it.”