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XlVyj-XlitJ XXX^J^ 



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THE LAST SURVIVORS OF ENGLAND S GREAT 

 BATTLES. 



In the second part of Annals of Health, by 

 Joseph Taylor (published by Effingham Wilson in 

 1818), under the head of " liecords of Longevity," 

 is a long list of persons who have lived to extreme 

 old age. I do not know who were Mr. Taylor's 

 authorities for the cases he enumerates, but among 

 them I find the following veterans of the army : 



Battle of Londonderry. — " Thomas Wimms 

 died in 1791, near Tuam in Ireland, aged 117. 

 He had been formerly a soldier, and fought in the 

 battle of Londonderry in 1701." 



Battle of EdgehiU. — "Oe William Walker 

 there is an excellent mezzotinto likeness, bearing 

 the following inscription : 



' William Walker, 



Born near Ribchester in Lancashire, anno 1613, 



Died anno 1736. 



At the battle of Edgehill he was in the Royal Service, 



Wounded in the arm, and had two horses 



Shot under him.' " 



Capture of Gibraltar. — " .John Ramsay, a 

 mariner, died at CoUercoats, near Nortli Shields, 

 in January, 1808, at the age of 115 years. He 

 served in the capacity of cabin boy on one of tlie 

 ships in Sir George Rooke's squadron, at the 

 taking of Gibraltar in 1704." 



Battle of Preston Pans. — " William Gillespie, 

 an old Chelsea pensicmer, died at Ruthwell, in the 

 county of Dumfries, Scotland, June 15, 1818. He 

 was 108 years old. He enlisted, when young, in 

 the Inniskillen Dragoons, and served in the 

 German wars under Lord Stair, in 1743-4." He 

 subsequently saved a stand of arms at Preston 

 Pans, which he took to Colonel Gardner. 



Capture of Quebec. ^- Samuel Mogg died in the 

 summer of 1812, at the age of 102. He served 

 under General Wolfe at the taking of Quebec. 



Spanish Armada. — " In Bunbury Church, 

 Cheshire, is the monument of Sir George Beeston, 

 who was an admiral in the British fleet when the 

 Spanish Armada was destroye<l in the year 1588. 

 . . . Sir George died in 1601, at the advanced 

 age of 102." 



Soldiers of William III. and Queen Anne. — 

 William Marshall, of Kirkcudbriglit, tinker, a 

 native of Kirkmichael, Ayrshire, died in 1792 ; 

 was present at the siege of Derry, and afterwards 

 entered the Dutch service. — William Billings died 

 at Fairfield Head, near Longnor in Staffordshire, 

 in the autumn of 1793, aged 114. He was the last 

 survivor in England of the Duke of Marlborough's 

 privates. — Paul Hausen, a native of Germany, 

 died at Hedingham, Norfolk, in 1781, in the 108th 

 year of his age. He had been a resident in seven 

 kingdoms, and served under the Duke of Marl- 

 borough. — Sergeant Donald MacLeod, born in 



1688, in the parish of Bracedill, in the Isle of 

 Skye, was alive in 1797. He served under the 

 Duke of Marlborough, the Duke of Argyle in 

 1715, the Duke of Cumberland in Flanders, the 

 Marquis of Granby in Germany, and Sir Henry 

 Clinton in the American War, as well as in Ire- 

 land, and in the French war in America in 1757, 

 and was present at the reduction of Louisbourg 

 and Quebec. 



Soldier of Oeorge I. and II. — Joshua Crew- 

 man, a pensioner at Chelsea Hospital, died in 

 1794, at the age of 123. 



Ramsay, Gillespie, Billings, and MacLeod are 

 mentioned by Mb. Watlen, but I have quoted 

 Mr. Taylor's version, as it differs in some particu- 

 lars, although how much credit is to be attaclied 

 to it I know not. Alexander Andrews. 



THE CITIZENS OF DORCHESTER, U. S. A. 



I think you will agree with me that the ac- 

 companying letter, which a[)peared in the Dorset 

 Couiittj Chronicle of Thursilay last, possesses far 

 more than a mere local interest, and deserves to 

 be enshrined amongst your Notes. Every such 

 acknowledgment by Americans of their connexion 

 with the mother country appears to me to be a 

 step in the right direction, which should be cor- 

 dially reciprocated by ourselves. 



Few, if any, of the more uncommon names here 

 inquired after, remain, I believe, in our English 

 Dorchester, unless Voss be the representative of 

 Vose. Sumner, also, I recollect in my earlier 

 days. C. W. Bingham. 



Bingham's Melcombe, Dorchester, 

 June 5, 1855. 



" The Mayor of Dorchester, having received the following 

 Letter, would esteem it a favour if any one who is pos- 

 sessed of any information relative to the families mentioned 

 therein, would communicate the same to him. 



DORCHESTEK, MASSACHUSETTS, U. S. A. 



May 8th, 1855. 

 " The undersigned Members of the Dorchester Anti- 

 quarian and Historical Society. 



" To the Citizens of the City of Dorchester, Dorset. 

 " FniENOS, — Your place being the residence of many of 

 our progenitors, and from which this town derived its 

 name, we address you with an affectionate interest. It 

 is comparatively but a few j^ears since our ancestors left 

 their quiet homes, and launched forth upon the ocean to 

 make a new home for themselves and posterity, and take 

 up their abode in this then inhospitable wilderness of 

 savages and wild beasts ; as we look back upon the 

 history of this period, it appears as if events had been 

 transpiring for two centuries, to bring forth and educate 

 for this work, this inestimable race of men. They came to 

 worship God according to the dictates of their own con- 

 sciences, and although their treatment of those who dif- 

 fered from them in religions sentiment was often harsh, 

 cruel, and almost inexcusable, yet we must remember that 



