AN ESSA Y ON LONGE VITY. 1 3 1 



abnormal longevity from recognition. Sir George 

 Cornewall Lewis and others have endeavoured to 

 throw doubt on the possibility of man's longevity 

 exceeding 100 years. Though it has been clearly 

 shewn that the cases of Jenkins, Parr and others, rest 

 on no proper evidence, and are quite inadmissible as 

 proofs of excessive longevity, yet Sir George appears 

 to have rushed into a fanciful conclusion in arbitrarily 

 limiting man to too years : the fascination of numbers 

 has had some share in this. There are well-authen- 

 ticated cases of persons who have exceeded the age 

 of 100 years attested by the registration at baptism, 

 which is what the opponents of man's possibly ex- 

 ceeding 36,500 and odd days of existence have always 

 demanded. There is the case of Miss Baillie, sister 

 of Dr. Baillie, of Mr. Shuldham of Marlesford Hall, 

 who took the chair at a dinner given to his tenants 

 on his 1 00th birthday, and lived two years subse- 

 quently. Of this case my friend, Mr. Cordy Jeaf- 

 freson, has been good enough to give me the following 

 sketch : — 



'The old man lived at Marlesford — not at Mar- 

 tlesham — famous in history for its Red Lion ; and 

 he certainly was not more than 102 years at the 

 time of his death. 



Baptized at Beccles, in Suffolk, in July 1743, 

 William Shuldham died in May, 1845. The exact 

 date of his birth I do not know, but I presume that 

 it preceded his baptism long enough to entitle him 



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