April 28. 1855.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



319 



THE LAST SURVIVORS OF ENGLAND'S GREAT 

 BATTLES. 



It has been often observed, that some of the 

 most signal instances of longevity are to be found 

 amongst those who have passed their early years 

 in the fatigues and privations of active military 

 life. Judging by cases already before our eyes, 

 it is not unlikely that many a youth will be able 

 to talk of the dangers he has confronted at Inker- 

 man and Balaklava in the middle of the twentieth 

 century. Let the following list show^how well- 

 founded is such a supposition : — 



Edfrehill, 1642.— William Hazeland, a native 

 of Wiltshire, who died in 1732, aged one hundred 

 and twelve (on his tomb at Chelsea, the name is 

 spelt Hiseland). He was twenty-two when he 

 fought for the Parliament at Edgehill ; after which 

 he bore his part all through the civil war, was in 

 William of Orange's army in Ireland, and closed 

 his services under the renowned Duke of Marl- 

 borough ; having borne arms eighty years. The 

 Duke of Richmond and Sir Robert Walpole, in 

 consideration of his long services, each allowed 

 him a crown a week sometime before his death. 

 The old man helped himself another way ; being 

 recorded in Faulkner's account of Chelsea as having 

 married three times after attaining the age of one 

 hundred, though his epitaph, to be given presently, 

 would certainly lead us to infer that such an event 

 took place only once after that advanced period. 

 His lust marriage was contracted the year before 

 his death, viz. Aug. 9, 1731. A picture of him 

 taken at the age of one hundred and ten is still 

 extant. Now for his epitaph. 



" Here rests William Hiseland, 



A veteran if ever soldier was. 



Who merited well a pension, 



If long service be a merit : 



Having served upwards of the days of man ; 



Ancient, but not superannuated. 



Engaged in a series of wars, 



Civil as well as foreign ; 



Yet not maimed or worn out by either. 



His complexion was florid and fresh, 



His health hale and hearty, 



His memory exact and ready. 



In stature he excelled the military size : 



In strength surpassed the prime of youth : 



And what made his age still more patriarchal, 



When above one hundred years old, 



He took unto him a wife. 



Read, fellow soldiers, and reflect 



That there is a spiritual warfiire, 



As well as a warfare temporal. 



Born 6 August, 1620^^ J ^g^^ 112. 



Died 7 Februarv, 1732 



Oliver Cromwell's Veterans. — The last two of 

 the "Ironsides" appear to have been Alexander 

 McCuUock, residing near Aberdeen at the time of 

 his death in 1757, aged one hundred and thirty- 

 two ; and Colonel Thomas Winslow of Tipperary, 



in Ireland, who died in 1766, at the extraordinary 

 age of one hundred and forty- six. He held, the 

 rank of captain when accompanying Oliver on the 

 famous expedition to Ireland in 1649. But per- 

 haps the most remarkable relic of that period, 

 transmitted to our own times, was the son of one 

 of Oliver's drummers ; which son was living near 

 Manchester, so recently as 1843, at the age of one 

 hundred and twenty. This was James Horrocka, 

 whose father, supposing him to have been a drum- 

 mer boy of the age of ten at the Protector's death 

 in 1658, need not have been more than seventy- 

 five at the birth of the son ; so that the case is 

 quite credible. (Manchester Guardian.') 



Siege of Namur, 1695 (where William of 

 Orange personally commanded). — Mr. Fraser, of 

 the Royal Hospital at Kilmainham, near Dublin, 

 who lost his arm in the trenches by a cannon- 

 shot at Namur, attained the age of one hundred 

 and eighteen, and died in 1768. But much more 

 recent were the deaths of the two following indi- 

 viduals belonging to William's army. 



Matthew Champion of Great Yarmouth, who 

 came over with the prince in 1688 (his father 

 being a farrier in that army), and who lived till 

 1793, being then one hundred and eleven years of 

 age ; and, 



David Caldwell of Bridgnorth, born the year 

 after William's arrival, who commenced his career 

 as a drummer, and ended a soldier's life in 1796, 

 at the age of one hundred and seven. He may 

 be said to have been a soldier ab ovo, born in the 

 army in the town of Ayr. 



Capture of Gibraltar by Admiral Sir George 

 Rooke, in 1704. — John Campbell, died 1791, aged 

 one hundred and twenty, at Dungannon in Ire- 

 land, though a native of Scotland. He served as 

 a marine. 



Matthew Tait of Auchinleck, in Ayrshire, died 

 1792, aged one hundred and twenty-three ; a 

 soldier. 



John Ramsay of Collercotes, near North Shields, 

 died so recently as 1807, aged one hundred and 

 fifteen. He was of a remarkably cheerful dispo- 

 sition, and often amused himself and his friends 

 with an old song. He was a seaman. 



Soldiers serving under the Duke of Marlborough 

 during the Reign of Queen Anne. -— Of these, a 

 very considerable list might be given of indi- 

 viduals surpassing the age of one hundred. The 

 more recently deceased are the following : 



Alexander Kilpatrick, Esq., Colonel of an Irish 

 regiment of foot, died at Longford, in Ireland, in 

 1783, aged one hundred and sixteen. 



McLeod of Inverness, died 1790, aged one 

 hundred and two. Two years before his death, 

 having married a second wife, he walked to Lon- 

 don in nineteen days to solicit an increase of his 

 pension. 



