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SECTION VI.

LONGEVITY HEREDITARY.

"And Jacob said unto Pharaoh, The days of the years of my pilgrimage are one hundred and thirty years** and have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers."

319. LENGTH OF LIFE HEREDITARY: JARVILLE; PARR; McDONALD.

THAT Some families are long-lived in all their generations, is so obviously a law of transmission as to require little else, as far as argument is concerned, than its mere statement. Yet, for the reason already given, that we are now laying a foundation for other inferences of great practical moment, we shall fortify these our primary positions by an array of facts which will effectually preclude all ground for reasonable doubt, so as to render the force of our subsequent positions complete.

DR. ALCOTT'S "Teacher of Health" for 1843, page 315, in an article on "the Influence of Temperance on Longevity," states that "a woman was living quite recently, at Glasgow, Scotland, aged 130 years, who had not felt pain for a century. Her father died aged 120, and her grandfather 129. A woman died in the west of England, a few years ago, at the age of 110, having 450 descendants. Jarville, in Scotland, a water-drinker, lived 108 years, and his son still longer, and his grandchildren to a great age."

THOMAS PARR lived to be 152 years old, and a son 109, and a grandson 113, and Robert Parr, a great grandson, died Sept. 21, 1757, aged 124.

The "Library of Health" for 1840 contains the following: "We were personally acquainted with the late DONALD McDONALD, of quarrelsome memory, who was sent to the house of correction for a street brawl, when about 105 years old. When 106, he enjoyed excellent health. **** His father lived to be 137, and no one knows when he would have died, had he not been accidentally killed. * * *

"A former neighbor of ours died at the age of 80, though an immoderate opium-taker 40 years. His father lived to be 97, and had 19 children, 105 grandchildren, 155 great-grandchildren, and four of the fifth generation. Many of his children reached the ages of 80 and 90."

THE ALDEN FAMILY.

"The Genealogy of the Fourteen Families of the Early Settlers of New England"—a work unconsciously full of hereditary facts-contains the following genealogy of Hon. John Alden, the stripling who first leaped upon Plymouth rock, and progenitor of the Aldens in the United States. He was the one sent by Captain Miles Standish to get the consent of Priscilla Mullins and her father to a marriage with said Standish. After having made his request, the fair damsel replied, "Pr'ythee, John, why do you not ask for yourself?" He did, and they married; for which unpardonable offence the Captain never forgave them. This Alden, at his death, had 19 children, 62 grandchildren, 134 great-grandchildren, and seven of the fifth generation. He lived to a great age-about 90. One of his descendants, Timothy, in Yarmouth, Massachusetts, was a pastor fifty-nine years, and died at 92.

JOHN ALDEN, the great-grandson of the ancestor, died at Middleborough, aged 103. He retained his bodily and mental powers so remarkably, that, after he was 100 years old, he often conversed with propriety on religion, and could repeat whole chapters from the Bible. He was the oldest man in the "Old Colony," and a church member seventy-eight years. His grandmother was daughter of Peregrine White, the first white male child born in New England. His mother was the daughter of Captain Ebenezer White, and therefore granddaughter of this Peregrine White.

Of the ancestor's descendants of the fourth generation, Dr. Silas Alden attained the age of 90, Nathan 80, Daniel 80-Daniel's father, Joseph A., a grandson of the ancestor, 80-Eleazer 79, Samuel 80, Seth 75-his daughter 81-Mary 80, Zephaniah-grandson of Joseph-80, Barnabas 60, Harriet 70, Jonathan—a great-great-grandson of the ancestor―

84, and his wife 91, and her grandfather 80; Zephaniah Alden, another of the fourth generation, and his brother, each 80, Samuel 81, Hannah 70, another 83, another 90, two others, 80 each, another, Deacon Ezra, 84. Of the third generation, John, already mentioned, was 103, Noah, a reverend 72, and Abigail 88. Elizabeth, daughter of the ancestor, died at 93, at which time her granddaughter was a GRANDMOTHER! five generations of her descendants being alive at once, and she the sixth. Other descendants reached 73, 82, 67, 79, 81, 79, 70, 91, 91, 70, 92, 92, 70, and 74 years, nearly all the ages there recorded, which are comparatively few.

THE HOBART, BASS, COPELAND, AND FRENCH FAMILIES.

The same work gives the following ages of the descendants of the ancestor HOBART, from whom Bishop Hobart was descended: Edmund Hobart, son of the ancestor, 82, Peter 75, Caleb, grandson, 89-wife 86-third son, Caleb, 70, Rev. Joshua, another grandson, 89, who was a preacher 49 years, Rev. Jeremiah, also a grandson, 87, and his brother 62, and Rev. Nehemiah, grandson of Peter, 64, a preacher 40 years. The BASS family attained the following ages: The ancestor, a Plymouth pilgrim, lived 94 years, and had 162 descendants when he died. His wife died at 93, and some of their descendants as follows: 84, 89, 97, 82, 98, 74, and 87.

LAWRENCE COPELAND, a very aged man, born in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and deceased 1699, had children who attained the respective ages of 90, 92, 77, 78, 86, and 83. JOHN FRENCH, another ancestor, lived to be 80, and his sons 89, 73, 78, and 80, the two last twins.

THE LEWIS, MARSH, COBB, TAPPAN, AND BREVOORT FAMILIES.

"HANNAH LEWIS," says Rush on the Mind, "though deranged from middle life, lived to be 87. A predisposition to longevity, derived from her ancestors, predominated over the tendency of her long-protracted disease to destroy her life. She lost one sister in the eighty-second year of her age, and, at the time of her death had another living, who was 94."

Of the MASH or Marsh family, "The Memoirs of Mrs. Tappan" states that Onesiphorus and his son John, and grandson

THE CABLES, TOPPANS, ADAMSES, &c.

55

David, died each aged 80 years. David's wife-a Moodylived to be 91, and had lost none of her twelve children at her death, nor did any die till twelve years afterward. "This family has been remarkable for the longevity of its members."

Seven brothers, COBBS, lived to the following ages: Benjamin nearly 87, Mason above 84, John 82, David 79, Daniel 71, Solomon alive at 84, and Jonathan at 82. Aggregate ages 570; average age nearly 82. Two of them saw their great-grandchildren. Their father lived nearly 80 years, and their mother 98.-CHRONOTYPE.

HENRY BREVOORT recently died in the Bowery, New York, aged 104, and most of his ancestors and relations have lived to be very

old.

Seven TAPPANS of New York State, all recently alive, have together lived 597 years-over 85, on an average—and likely to live considerably longer.

The Toppans or Tappans generally live to a great age.

The grandmother of Lewis and Arthur Tappan, was a Marsh, of Haverhill, Mass.; she died aged 84. Her father, Deacon David Marsh, died aged 89: he had 12 children, whose average ages exceeded 84, and in the aggregate, were over 1000.

THE FRANKLIN, FOLGER, WOODBURY, ADAMS, AND FOWLER FAMILIES,

Franklin's father lived to be 89, and his mother 83. Neither were ever sick. Franklin himself, and his son lived, the one to be 84, and the other 82.

As already remarked, the Tappan and Franklin families are related to the Folgers, also long lived: Walter is now 82,-and of course to each other. The Woodbury families live to a great age.

John Q. Adams now a remarkably laborious, yet vigorous and eloquent old man-at over 80, is from a very long-lived stock. His great-grandfather died at 93, and his father at 91, and so well at that age, that he expected, the day he died, to have celebrated "Independence" in Boston, but died suddenly. The author's great-great-grandfather, Fowler, died, aged 93, and his grandfather over 80, of poison, yet able to work quite hard; and Eliphalet Fowler, already mentioned,315 lived to be 84, and was able to do light work, the year he died.

The author's grandmother, Field, was 84, and would, doubtless, have lived to a greater age, but that she took opium in great excess. Nearly all her brothers became very old. One, Solomon Field, of Ashfield, Mass., died at about 90.

Mrs. Jane Simmons died in London, in 1792, aged 119 years. She left two daughters, each 100 years old.

A woman in Berlin, in Prussia, recently married after she was 100 years old, at which time she had a son over 80.

JOHN VAN FROST, of Schenectady, in his 104th year, had children aged as follows:-James, 84; Gersham, 79; Aaron, 71; John, 64; and a daughter, Mrs. Shirtleff, 77.

The following, from Joshua Coffin, bears recorded testimony, touching this point:

LETTER FROM JOSHUA COFFIN ON LONGEVITY.

NEWBURY, 30th November, 1846.

DEAR SIR,

Samuel Chase, of Newbury, married Hannah Emery, 8th Dec., 1713. His children were

Francis-born 8th August, 1715, and died 25th September, 1806; aged 91.

Amos-born 9th January, 1718, and died in 1817, aged 99 years 10 and a half months.

Hannah-born 23d March, 1721.

Mary--born 15th August, 1724, died young.

Anna-born 3d October, 1727.

Samuel-born 22d October, 1728.

Mary-born 24th December, 1731.

Betty-born 9th October, 1734.

I can obtain and send, in a few days, the ages of all the preceding persons, who, I am told, all but one or two, lived to an advanced age. Let us now take the posterity of Deacon Francis Chase, the first in the above list. He married Sarah Pike, and lived in Newtown, N. H., and had fourteen chiidren, viz:

1. Hannah-married Joseph Welsh, of Plastow; had 13 children, and died aged 80.

2. Samuel-married Molly Stuart, of Litchfield; had 11 children, and died aged 76.

3. Amos-married Hannah Carlton, of Unity. and died aged 73, having 13 children.