Dr. F other gill on Longevity. 
cn any particular climate, fituation, or occu¬ 
pation in life. For we fee, that it often prevails 
in places, where all thefe are extremely dif- 
fimilar; and it would, moreover, be very 
difficult, in the hiftories of the feveral perfons 
above-mentioned, to find any circumfiance 
common to them all, except, perhaps that 
of being born of healthy parents, and of bein^ 
inured to - daily labour, temperance, and 
fimplicity of diet. Among the inferior ranks 
of mankind, therefore, rather than arnongd 
the Tons of eafe and luxury, fhall we find die 
molt numerous inlfances of longevitv • even 
frequently, when other external circumftances 
feem extremely unfavourable : as in the cafe of 
the poor fexton at Peterborough , who, notwith- 
(landing his unpromifing occupation among dead 
bodies, lived long enough to bury two crowned 
heads, and to furvive two complete generations.* 
The livelihood of Henry Jenkins , and old Parr, is 
faid to have confided chiefly of the coarfeft fare, 
as they depended on precarious alms. To 
which may be added, the remarkable inftance of 
/Ignes Mlhurne , who, after bringing forth a 
numerous offspring, and being obliged, through 
extreme indigence, to pafs the latter part of her 
life in St. Luke’s wQrk-houfe, yet reached her 
* Fuller' % Worthies, p. 293, from a Memorial in the 
Cathedral at Peterborough. 
hundredth 
